Tragic Details About Olivia Munn's Life
The following article mentions suicide, mental health struggles, disordered eating, sexual assault allegations, abuse allegations, and hate crimes.
Despite her work on high-profile productions such as "The Daily Show" and "Iron Man 2," Olivia Munn seems to generate more publicity for her personal life as opposed to her professional achievements. Namely, Munn's controversial relationship with John Mulaney has led to accusations of some truly questionable behavior. Online sleuths have dug into the timeline of Munn and Mulaney's relationship, which appeared to coincide with the latter leaving his wife of seven years, Anna Marie Tendler, in May 2021. The shadiness was amplified when Mulaney, who had previously told Tendler that he didn't want kids, welcomed a son with Munn just months later, resulting in a hefty backlash from fans. Additionally, Munn was criticized for the awful things she wrote in her 2010 book, "Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures Of A Hollywood Geek," particularly barbs that have been deemed fatphobic.
But the self-styled geek is far from a one-dimensional figure. Despite all the shadiness — both overt and alleged — the actor has also done a wealth of good, from raising awareness of a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. to lending her passionate voice to the #MeToo movement. Her altruistic endeavors are a direct result of the hardships she has faced throughout the years, with Munn's tragic life story central to her multifaceted persona.
Olivia Munn's stepfather was allegedly abusive
Olivia Munn didn't have the easiest start in life. Following her parents' divorce when she was just 2 years old, she and her mom moved to Tokyo to live with her new stepfather, an officer in the U.S. Air Force. The youngster had a troubled relationship with her stepfather, whom she referred to as "The Devil." "I had a very abusive stepfather, so there was a lot of bad s*** in my family," she told Vulture in 2010. "I found a picture of myself the day they got married. Everybody else is all dressed up and smiling, and I'm just staring into the camera. It's like I knew, This is not going to be good."
In an interview with Self, she divulged that when she was still in kindergarten, her stepfather whittled away at her self-esteem, telling her she didn't have what it takes to be a star. "He was like, 'You'd have to be beautiful, smart and talented. And you're not,'" she recalled.
Throughout the emotional abuse she was subjected to, Munn was resolute in her attempts to protect her siblings. During her stepdad's angry tirades, she would usher her siblings into her room and entertain them with impersonations of teachers to distract them.
At school, Olivia Munn was rejected by her peers
Largely due to the fact that her family was constantly moving from place to place, Olivia Munn struggled to connect with kids at school. Despite her best attempts to brush off this social rejection, the actor has conceded that fitting in really did mean a lot to her. "I was disliked because I was the new girl in every school I went to," she told Vulture. "I know it's cool [for celebrities] to say, 'Oh, I don't care about being popular.' Well, I cared. I get that it's important in that moment."
Feeling ostracized by the snooty cliques at school, she usually ended up eating lunch on her own. "One of the hardest things as a kid, I think, is finding a group to hang out with and have lunch with and that starts pretty early on," she explained during a press conference in 2017, per UPI.
Her desire to be liked by her peers led to her experiencing intense feelings of envy, exacerbated by her poor family's inability to buy her new clothes or school supplies. One day, however, she came to the realization that while there would always be kids who were more popular and wealthier than herself, there were also those who were far less privileged. "I've just got to run my own race," she reflected.
She was allegedly sexually assaulted by Brett Ratner
Along with five other women, Olivia Munn accused Brett Ratner of sexual assault in a 2017 Los Angeles Times exposé. Munn first met the filmmaker while running errands on the set of his 2004 film "After the Sunset." When Munn delivered some food to Ratner's trailer, the director opened the door with no pants on and began masturbating. After rushing out of the trailer in horror, she spoke to a lawyer who advised her not to speak out. "That did leave an impact on me," she said. "How broken do women have to be before people listen?"
When asked about the incident in question — which Munn also recounted in her book, "Suck It, Wonder Woman!" — Ratner replied, "I banged her a few times ... but I forgot her." (He also made racist remarks about Munn.) However, he later claimed that he lied about sleeping with her. Ratner allegedly continued to harass Munn, making lewd remarks about her after the two crossed paths at a party in 2010. A year later, he called Munn, initially dismissing her allegations before begging her to tweet that the pair had settled their acrimony. She refused.
Speaking to Women's Health in 2019, Munn revealed that the ordeal led to her breaking out into a rash that doctors initially believed was lupus. "One of the things that stresses me out more than anything, is how do we do right by [the silence breakers]?" she reflected.
As an up-and-coming actor, Olivia Munn was pressured to lose weight
As we've seen time and time again, female celebs are routinely on the receiving end of fat-shaming. Olivia Munn struggled with body image issues from a young age, and her low self-esteem was aggravated by the cruelty of the industry itself. "When I first got into the public eye, it was like, you know, I was called so many things ... that I was too big to be on TV," she divulged during an appearance on "Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw." "Then I would start to undereat because I would hear those messages and I would try to take that message myself and be like ... 'Sure, call me fat, I'm fat, sure, whatever.'"
Munn said that she would laugh off people's criticisms of her appearance, but behind the scenes she was desperately trying to find ways of losing weight. Subsequently, she began suffering from disordered eating. Years later, these painful experiences were triggered by the actor's first pregnancy.
Following the birth of her son in 2021, Munn was candid about her postpartum struggles, including the realization that her body had changed drastically. "The postpartum road is rough, but it's so worth it," she wrote on Instagram, noting that she was grateful to her body for producing her son.
Olivia Munn survived an abusive relationship
From 2014 to 2017, Olivia Munn was in a relationship with Aaron Rodgers. Following their split, she opened up about being in an abusive relationship, which led to speculation that she was referring to Rodgers. (This speculation, however, has not been substantiated by Munn.) As Munn explained in an interview at the 2019 Forbes Under 30 Summit (via MSNBC), she'd been socially conditioned to stay with her unnamed former partner. "I was doing things unconsciously," she said. "I was in a relationship that was emotionally abusive. I thought you just had to gut it out. Being a minority and a woman, it is ingrained in us to tough things out. We think life is supposed to be tough."
The relationship led to Munn neglecting herself, as well as her remarkable achievements amid the tumult. Namely, she had been able to sell two TV shows despite the hardships she was enduring, and only realized the extent of her success once she left her partner. "Because that relationship ended not having that support from him," she elaborated (via Detroit News), "and him wanting me to just always be there to cater to every need of his and not be supportive of my needs ... I was left so empty at the end."
In time, Munn rejected the notion that being tough meant enduring emotional abuse. Instead, she focused on self-care, the importance of which she had been sorely overlooking, and ultimately left her abusive ex.
The star was diagnosed with fibromyalgia
In 2019, Olivia Munn was diagnosed with fibromyalgia following an extended period of ill health. Fibromyalgia is a poorly understood chronic illness that has been dismissed by some doctors as factitious, which often leads to sufferers — the majority of whom are women — having their credibility questioned. This is in spite of the fact that the condition causes severe chronic pain and exhaustion. "I wasn't really sure what was going on with me," Munn told People. "I was going through a lot of different ailments for years and not knowing what was happening." She wasn't diagnosed with the condition until she was analyzed by a team of doctors at UCLA, who advised her to cut out sugar, gluten, and dairy from her diet (the findings from clinical studies vary as to the actual benefit of cutting these out).
"My situation was at a place where it was like, 'You're either going to go down a path where you're going to get multiple autoimmune diseases, or you have to stop now and we can try to get you better,' ... So I had no choice, I was feeling so bad," she said. She also takes medication to manage her illness.
She struggles with anxiety and trichotillomania
In 2013, Olivia Munn began experiencing severe panic attacks. She had to be hospitalized after suffering from shortness of breath that resulted in her losing consciousness. Her symptoms scared her, as her family took an unsympathetic approach to mental health issues. "Half my family is Asian, and for them anxiety, panic attacks, and chiropractors all fall into one category of 'You're being lazy,'" she explained to WebMD. "But the doctor explained to me that life doesn't have to be bad to have a panic attack. Your body is overstimulated, and your brain just can't keep up with your body."
Though she underwent therapy to help deal with her panic attacks, anxiety remains a constant presence in her life. "I think when people have anxiety attacks we don't talk about it, because the people who don't understand make you feel like you're going crazy, even when you know you're not," she reflected. However, Munn found that opening up about her anxiety has done her a great deal of good, making her feel less alone in the world.
As a result of her panic attacks, she also began suffering from OCD-related trichotillomania, an often debilitating mental illness characterized by a compulsion to pull out one's hair. "OCD comes from a place of needing to feel safe," she told Self (via USA Today). "I had it growing up, having had a little bit of a tumultuous upbringing." She sought out a hypnotherapist to help manage her condition.
The actor has suffered from suicidal thoughts
Following the suicide of Anthony Bourdain in 2018, Olivia Munn took to social media to make an impassioned plea to those suffering from suicidal ideation. In since-deleted X and Instagram posts (via Entertainment Tonight), she opened up about her own struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, which she said had been present throughout her adult life. She dispelled myths surrounding suicide, explaining that many people who feel suicidal don't actually want to die; rather, they want their suffering to end.
Munn implored her followers to talk about their innermost thoughts and fears. "Even if you think you don't want to get involved or don't want your friend to be mad at you ... Those are temporary consequences," she wrote. "With suicide, there's no do overs. Please try every single option you can before making a choice that cannot be undone."
Appearing on "The Demi Lovato Show" in 2021, she offered some further advice to those who have suffered from suicidal thoughts. "People who deal with depression, like you and me, and who can have suicidal thoughts, anytime you get to that place and it seems like ... you just can't take it anymore, just ask yourself if you can just hold on another day," she said.
She was the victim of anti-Asian hate
Growing up as a mixed-race child was hard for Olivia Munn, whose mom is of Chinese descent. "When I was a kid, I didn't understand why my eyes were more almond-shaped, or why I didn't have blond hair," she reflected in a 2016 chat with Byrdie (via Hello Giggles). But in time, Munn learned to love her natural beauty, thus rejecting restrictive beauty standards.
Though Munn had embraced her good looks when she first began acting, the entertainment industry was still shaped by Eurocentric ideals. Accordingly, she was subjected to racism from Hollywood execs who were confused by her ethnic background. In a 2015 interview with Prestige, she elaborated on these bigoted attitudes. "I'd go out for so many auditions, for everything," she said. "And then I'd be told, 'You're too Asian' or 'You're too white.' I remember someone telling me, 'Don't feel bad. One day they won't be trying to match you to fit with anyone else. You'll just be hired for you.' So you can't help but get frustrated."
In 2021, she used her platform to raise awareness of anti-Asian hate following a rise in hate crimes against Asian people and Pacific Islanders in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, she took part in a virtual AAPI community event, which was hijacked by racists disseminating anti-Asian images. "We were subjected to a hate crime in real time," she wrote on Instagram. "It was a cowardly and unconscionable act."
Olivia Munn faced a wrongful death lawsuit after a worker died at her property
By fall of 2021, Olivia Munn was expecting her first child with new beau John Mulaney and was feeling particularly grateful for all the good in her life. "I'm feeling really good and just the outpouring of love and support has been really amazing," she enthused in a chat with Access. But two months later, Munn's equilibrium was broken when she and her mom, Kim Schmid, were sued after a worker died at her home.
In May 2021, Celso Merida fell from Munn's roof while working on the property. The following month, he died of blunt force trauma in hospital. Accordingly, Merida's family launched a lawsuit against Munn and Schmid. The suit alleged that the mother and daughter were liable for Merida's death, as they'd hired him through an unlicensed contractor; moreover, they allegedly failed to provide him with sufficient tools that would have protected him from a fall. "Because of the negligence of DEFENDANTS and the resulting incident, Decedent died on June 11, 2021, leaving his young daughter, Plaintiff, to suffer damages according to proof," the suit stated, per Radar. After months of litigation, Munn was dropped from the lawsuit in May 2022.
Olivia Munn was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer
Despite testing negative for the BRCA gene in February 2023, Olivia Munn was diagnosed with Luminal B, an aggressive form of breast cancer, just two months later. She spent the year undergoing cancer treatment, including a double mastectomy.
In March of the following year, she went public with her diagnosis to provide comfort and inspiration to those also living with cancer. "In the past ten months I have had four surgeries, so many days spent in bed I can't even count and have learned more about cancer, cancer treatment and hormones than I ever could have imagined," she wrote on Instagram. "Surprisingly, I've only cried twice."
Despite the aggressive nature of the cancer, she said that she was feeling hopeful, as it was detected early. Subsequently, she encouraged her followers to ask their doctors for a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score, noting that if one's score is greater than 20% they'll need annual mammograms and breast MRIs from the age of 30. "I'm so thankful to John for ... always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes," she wrote towards the end of her post. Munn also shared a series of photos documenting her treatment, concluding with a framed photo of Mulaney and their son.
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