'It's Not Just Me I'm Fighting For'

DIAGNOSED WITH INVASIVE BREAST CANCER, THE ACTRESS SHARES HER YEARLONG ORDEAL AND HOW HER PARTNER, COMEDIAN JOHN MULANEY, AND THEIR 2-YEAR-OLD SON HELPED HER THROUGH

- ANDREA MANDELL

Olivia Munn is in mom mode as she hides a blue plastic ball in some greenery on a sunny patio in Los Angeles where she’s doing a photo shoot for People. “Malcolm loves balls,” she says, just as her 2-year-old son, whom she shares with her partner of nearly three years, comedian John Mulaney, arrives by way of his father’s hip. “Mama!” says Malcolm as Mulaney leans in to kiss Munn—“Liv” to him—hello. “You look beautiful,” he says as a barefoot Munn takes Malcolm’s hand and the two start hunting for the ball.

It’s a sweet, simple moment—and a stark contrast to the life-changing ordeal that Munn, 43, has faced over the past year. Last April the actress was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer after tests revealed she had luminal B—a fast-moving, aggressive cancer—in both breasts. “I was not someone who obsessed over death or was afraid of it in any way,” she says, but “having a little baby at home made everything much more terrifying.... You realize cancer doesn’t care who you are; it doesn’t care if you have a baby or if you don’t have time.” She was just two weeks away from starting a new sci-fi film when she was diagnosed. “It comes at you, and you have no choice but to face it head-on,” she says.