Olivia Munn is opening up about the intense challenges she faced after giving birth, revealing that her postpartum experience was even harder than her fight with breast cancer.
“Postpartum can hit like a tornado, especially when you stop breastfeeding suddenly and your hormones crash,” the 44-year-old star shared in a new Self magazine cover story released Thursday.
As some of you may know, Munn, welcomed her son Malcolm with comedian John Mulaney in 2021. She said the emotional toll came nearly two years before she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the candid interview, she also revealed she didn’t speak to anyone about her struggles with mental health at the time.
Then it was like I fell off a cliff, and I was just falling and falling and falling and falling. It was more difficult than going through cancer. My eyes pop open at 4 a.m. I’m gasping for air. I get the tightness in my chest, and it’s like that all day long. It felt like the end of the world…. It was like when you watch a horror movie — the worst, scariest horror movie you can think of — that’s how my body felt.
It wasn’t all anxiety either. She says she felt physical pain as well, so much so that John had to help her move around the house, noting it felt like she had sprained her knee.
Munn also talked about how she compared herself to other new moms, who seemed to be thriving and posting beautiful photos on their social media accounts…
I would see people on social media, people I knew had babies around the same time. I reached out to some of them. And I’m like, ‘How are you in these Valentino shorts and this crop top just running around LA and having the energy to take all these beautiful pictures?’ I didn’t have the energy to fake anything they were faking.
We appreciate Munn for keeping it real.
