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The inaugural season of Allure Perspectives will explore one of the most controversial and medically researched parts of a woman’s body: breasts. Through expert interviews, personal stories, and historical context, the podcast series, hosted by editor in chief Jessica Cruel, will examine how breasts intersect with beauty, health, identity, sexuality, and culture. In our first episode, Cruel talks with actress Olivia Munn about her experience with breast cancer. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every week.
At age 41, Olivia Munn gave birth to her son Malcolm. Less than a year and a half later, in April 2023, she learned she had postpartum breast cancer, which refers to breast cancer diagnosed within five to 10 years after giving birth.
Since then, Munn has been open about her health journey on social media. “When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, whenever I felt lost or unsure, I would search online for women who had gone through [it],” she shared with Allure editor in chief Jessica Cruel on the first episode of the Perspectives podcast. “I was looking for hope [and] guidance through their stories.” Now she’s on the other side of a treatment plan that involved five surgeries, including ones that put her into menopause.
Munn says that being postpartum, becoming a mother, and having breast cancer are the three most significant moments in her life. In the premiere episode of the podcast, she opens up about some of the hardest parts of each.
On having postpartum anxiety
After her son was born, Munn struggled with postpartum anxiety, especially financial anxiety since she hadn’t been able to work as an actor for months leading up to and after giving birth. “I was ready for depression,” she says. “I had heard about that all over the place for years.” But it wasn’t until she was a few months postpartum that she learned there was a name for extreme anxious feelings she was having. “The floor went out from under me,” Munn says. “I was just falling and falling and falling.”
On breastfeeding expectations vs. reality
Munn recounts seeing photos of women breastfeeding online: tired and perhaps wearing adult diapers but ultimately “they still look amazing.” While Malcolm latched right away, Munn says she had a really hard time producing milk despite seeing lactation consultants, hydrating, meditating, and doing everything else that is supposed to help. She was also surrounded by people who insisted that “breast is best,” so Munn continued to try to breastfeed—until she realized her son just wasn’t eating enough. “We got him onto formula,” she says. “He thrived after that.”
On her unexpected breast cancer diagnosis
Munn says she’s been so open about her breast cancer journey because she had been going through life assuming she wasn’t at risk for the disease. “I was doing all the right things,” she says. “And yet I had an aggressive form of cancer.” Munn’s annual mammogram showed no signs of disease, and she also had a clear ultrasound a month before she was ultimately diagnosed with multifocal, multiquadrant, bilateral luminal B, ER+/PR+/HER2- breast cancer via MRI.
Her ob-gyn, Thaïs Aliabadi, MD, had ordered the additional imaging—despite the previous tests being clear—after Munn scored a 37.3% on the Tyrer-Cuzick risk model, which is an assessment tool used to estimate lifestyle breast cancer risk. She’s now working with Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona on a bill “so that we can hopefully get every doctor in our country to make it part of their standard of care,” Munn says.
On choosing surgical menopause
In addition to a double mastectomy, Munn opted for an oophorectomy to remove her ovaries, plus had her fallopian tubes and uterus removed as well. She had already frozen some of her eggs at age 33 and again at 39 and wasn’t reacting well to the medication she was on that created temporary medical menopause to suppress her hormones during cancer treatment. Munn says that there is often pressure to “preserve fertility” when women are making these decisions, but she also knew it would be too high risk for her to carry another pregnancy (she and her husband, John Mulaney, had a second child via surrogacy in 2024). Ultimately, Munn felt that choosing a surgery that would get her off the medication that was making her so tired she couldn’t get out of bed was the right decision.
On her “small and chic” breasts after reconstructive surgery
Munn says she contemplated not getting any reconstruction after her double mastectomy, but Dr. Aliabadi advised she reconsider. “Dr. Alibadi said, ‘Look, you’re about to go through a lot. Your body’s going to change,’” Munn recalls. “‘If you want to just take the implants out, you can do that later. But I would suggest not shocking every part of your identity.’”
A reconstruction is different from an augmentation. For one thing, Munn had to get circular implants—since all the tissue needed to be removed to reduce her chance of the cancer recurring—that are often less natural-looking than the teardrop ones typically used for augmentation when breast tissue remains that can hold the asymmetrical implants in place.
“When they rolled me into surgery, the last thing I said was ‘small and chic, please,’” Munn says, noting that she’s very happy with the final results.
In 2024, she decided in the moment to show her mastectomy scars in a campaign for Skims. “I don’t like some of these things [about my body], but I don’t feel insecure,” Munn says. She is happy to share every detail of her story if it helps other women. “When I get asked about any part of my health journey, it feels like I have a purpose,” she says.
Listen to the episode:
To hear the rest of the conversation—including how Munn now answers the all-too-common question, “Do you feel like your body betrayed you?”—listen to the full episode below. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.)
