'I FEEL SO OLIVIA Munn AT PEACE'

BACK IN ACTION IN THE APPLE TV+ HIT YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS, THE ACTRESS SHARES HOW HER HUSBAND, COMEDIAN JOHN MULANEY, AND THEIR TWO KIDS HELPED HER FIND NEW STRENGTH AFTER HER BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSIS

- By BRIANNE TRACY

After two decades of acting, Olivia Munn finds that her toughest negotiations these days are with her 3-year-old son Malcolm. On the morning of her People cover shoot in Orange County, Calif., in May, she had to tell him mid-tantrum that later in the day he’d come to set and a big party would be waiting for him, complete with his requests for balloons, cotton candy anda birthday cake and candles (his birthday is in November). “This is a survival technique,” Munn explains prior to Malcolm’s arrival. “I guess we'll sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. Although he’s 3, so I have no idea what’s going to set him off. Any parent out there doing whatever they have to do to get through the day has my utmost respect.”

Jokes aside, it would take more than a toddler tantrum for Munn, 44, to falter. After going through postpartum anxiety following Malcolm’s birth and enduring multi-ple surgeries and treat-ments since her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2023, the Oklahoma-born actress—whose husband, comedian John Mulaney, and their daughter Méi, 8 months, were also present at the shoot—takes every parenting win and misstep in stride. “Just yesterday John was trying to discipline Malcolm, and I’m just laughing, tears are coming out of my eyes,” she says. “Everything is funny and light and airy to me now, like 95 percent of the time, because it was so much to handle back-to-back.” Two years after her cancer diagnosis, “it’s so crazy to think that I’m sitting here with two amazing babies,” says Munn, who welcomed Méi via surrogate last September, amid her cancer treatment. “I’m just so happy and grateful, and I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to do. I didn’t know how much strength I had inside me.”

Making things even sweeter is her career resurgence: The Newsroom alum currently stars in the buzzy Apple TV+ series