Olivia Munn and John Mulaney welcome baby girl via surrogate: Their path to parenthood
It's been a true whirlwind for the pair since they coupled up in 2021.
Olivia Munn and John Mulaney's family has grown.
The couple announced on social media that they had welcomed a daughter, Méi June Mulaney, on Sept. 14 via gestational surrogate. The baby — who joins brother Malcolm Hiệp, 2 — arrived after Munn's breast cancer diagnosis last year.
"I had so many profound emotions about not being able to carry my daughter," Munn wrote on Instagram. "When I first met our gestational surrogate we spoke mother to mother. She showed me so much grace and understanding, I knew I had found a real-life angel. Words cannot express my gratitude that she kept our baby safe for 9 months and made our dreams come true."
Munn shared that Méi means "plum" in Chinese. In his own post, Mulaney wrote, "I love my little girl so much."
It's been quite a year for the couple, who tied the knot over Fourth of July weekend. In March, Munn revealed that she had been diagnosed last year with a form of breast cancer known as luminal B cancer. Her treatment included a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy. She also completed a round of egg retrieval.
Here, we look at the couple's road to the altar and beyond — the highs, lows and in between...
2013: Boy meets girl at Seth Meyers's Martha's Vineyard, Mass., wedding
Mulaney was otherwise engaged, literally — to artist Anna Marie Tendler, whom he had been in a relationship with since 2010 — but Munn, who was there with another Saturday Night Live alum, Will Forte, recalled being "obsessed" with befriending him at the wedding.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, do you and your fiancée want to go have dinner or something?'" Munn told HuffPost in 2015. "At first it was cool, and then I kept going up to him at the wedding like, 'So you having fun?' I was just so obsessed with hanging out with and talking with him.'" She later emailed him, and he never wrote back. "I might've got the wrong email — probably. That's what I tell myself."
Mulaney wrote an article about the wedding for Vogue, which featured a photo of Munn with bride Alexi Ashe.
Mulaney went on to marry Tendler the next year — interestingly, also over July 4th weekend like his second wedding — while Munn began a relationship with NFL star Aaron Rodgers.
2017: Munn and Rodgers split. She tries to get Mulaney's attention during a TV special.
While taping Jon Stewart's Night of Too Many Stars for HBO, the former Daily Show correspondent tried to get Mulaney to talk to her on camera as he exited the stage. "Hi, John," she said in the clip, but he ignored her.
2020: Mulaney goes to rehab. Munn expresses support in now viral tweet.
Mulaney had an addiction relapse and went to rehab in September. He had a sobriety slip right after, returning to rehab in December for 60 more days of treatment.
When news broke he was in treatment the second time, Munn was among the celebrities who publicly expressed support. "Sending SO MUCH love and support to John Mulaney," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in December. "You got this."
After it was reported that they were dating, her resurfaced tweet went viral and became a meme (see: "Sending SO MUCH Love And Support"). The tweet has since been deleted.
2021: Mulaney separates from Tendler, confirms Munn relationship and welcomes a baby with Munn (whew!)
Mulaney completed 60 days of treatment and left rehab in February. He lived in a sober house for a month and a half. On May 10, he filed for divorce from Tendler, who issued a statement describing herself as "heartbroken." Three days later, it was reported he was dating Munn.
In late May, a rumor surfaced on TikTok that Munn was pregnant. It's crickets from their camps as they kept things low-key. They're photographed for the first time in June.
In September, Mulaney confirmed on Meyers's late night show that he and Munn were dating and expecting a child. He went deep into outlining his version of their relationship timeline to clarify speculation it overlapped with his marriage. He claimed he moved out of the home he shared with Tendler in October 2020, moved to L.A. after rehab and started dating Munn in the spring of 2021.
Mulaney, who previously said while married to Tendler he didn't want kids, credited Munn and their unborn child for turning his life around: "Olivia and this baby have helped save me from myself in this early journey out of recovery."
In October, there were breakup rumors surrounding the couple. The next month, Munn addressed the interest in their (still on track) relationship, telling the Los Angeles Times, "It's definitely not foreign for me to have people speculate incorrectly about things and to have rumors run rampant in one way. They think they know our relationship so well. When in reality, they don't. There's no way anyone could know what any of his relationships were or what our relationship is."
Baby Malcolm Hiệp was born on Nov. 24, 2021. They announced the news a month later on Christmas Eve.
2022: They open up about their private romance
When Mulaney hosted SNL in February, he gushed that his "life is a lot better and happier now" with his family.
They started popping up on each other's Instagram's feeds with adorable pics of baby Malcolm. They marked their first Mother's Day and Father's Day. She wore his clothes. He celebrated turning 40 "with my little family." She shared that baby's first word was "Daddy/Dada." They also celebrated Malcolm's first birthday.
2023: They inch closer to a public debut
For Father's Day, he paid tribute in a very public way to his partner, writing, "You made me a dad, Olivia. I love you forever for doing that." She posted her own declaration of love, writing, "We love you Dada."
Their openness about the relationship grew from there. In September, they were photographed at an event together for the first time. There was no red carpet pic at the Chanel dinner, but they allowed a photographer to capture a cozy moment.
However, Munn's remark that people "think they know our relationship so well [when] they don't" was really the truth. She had been diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer — an aggressive cancer — in both breasts in March. She kept the news a secret, including quietly undergoing a double mastectomy.
2024: She reveals her breast cancer diagnosis, they marry and welcome baby No. 2
On Jan. 9 — about three years after first getting together — they made their official red carpet debut at the Governors Awards. She later captioned a photo of them together heading to the event hand in hand as "mom + dad."
While their red carpet debut was picture-perfect, behind the scenes their life was in chaos. In March, Munn revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer one year earlier.
Of the "terrifying" ordeal, Munn told People, "There's so much information, and you're making these huge decisions for the rest of your life. I really tried to be prepared, but the truth is that nothing could prepare me for what I would feel like, what it would look like and how I would handle it emotionally. It was a lot tougher than I expected."
Munn has undergone five surgeries following her diagnosis, including a hysterectomy in April 2024. She also completed a round of egg retrieval, hoping to one day expand her family with Mulaney.
She has expressed appreciation for Mulaney along the way, including "for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect," she wrote on Instagram. "For being there before I went to each surgery and being there when I woke up, always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes."
Munn told People it "would've felt like climbing an iceberg without him."
In May, Mulaney told Vogue, "Olivia and I have been through a lot of things together in the past couple years. Just side-by-side, supporting each other through anything. And as her guy, I felt both scared and protective. Even with Malcolm in her lap and me there holding her hand, she was going to be physically fighting this disease alone."
In an interview with David Letterman, Mulaney said Munn's pregnancy was "a big surprise" to both of them. He said that at home, they have a tender romance: "Olivia and I try to show Malcolm how much we love each other."
Over the July 4 weekend, the couple married at a friend's home in New York state. Munn's Newsroom co-star Sam Waterston (also of Law & Order fame) officiated the very intimate ceremony, which Malcolm was present for. The only other attendee was Waterston's wife, Lynn Woodruff, according to TMZ, serving as the witness.
Mulaney confirmed the wedding during an Aug. 13 interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers. He called marriage "the best" and said that being part of Munn's family is "the greatest single time in my life."
He brought Munn's mother, who he referred to as "Mom," to the show, and cracked jokes about life with his in-laws.
"I've been in a lot of interesting situations, but marrying into a large Vietnamese family is one of the most fun things I've ever done,” said Mulaney, who is Irish Catholic.
While he called his own family "uptight about a lot of topics," he said Munn's isn't. "They talk about anything immediately upon meeting you. Like, 'How much money you have? Why you so skinny?'"
On Sept. 22, the couple announced on social media that they had welcomed their second child, daughter Méi June, via a gestational surrogate on Sept. 14.
Méi, which is pronounced "may," means "plum" in Chinese, Munn shared, adding, "I am so proud of my little plum, my little dragon for making the journey to be with us. My heart has exploded."
The comedian joked that they "stole so much stuff from the hospital" when Méi was born, before adding: "I love my little girl so much."
Updated, Sept. 23, 2024, at 12 p.m. ET: (This story was originally published on Jan. 11, 2024, and has been updated to include the birth of the couple's daughter.)