Olivia Munn ‘Felt Like an Expectant Father’ Using a Surrogate (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Olivia Munn says she “felt like an expectant father” while waiting for daughter Méi’s arrival via surrogate
• Before Méi was born, Munn says she had concerns like, “Will my daughter know me?”
• Munn’s anxieties lifted after Méi’s arrival last September because “Méi would cry, and I was the only one who could get her to stop”: “I knew she knew me, and I knew her”

Olivia Munn is reflecting on her journey welcoming 8-month-old daughter Méi via surrogate.

The Your Friends & Neighbors star — who also shares son Malcolm, 3, with husband John Mulaney —tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that preparing for Méi’s arrival “was the first time I was like, ‘Oh wait, is this what it’s like to be an expectant dad?'”

“A lot of times people say, ‘Oh, the dads don’t really connect with the baby until it’s right there in front of them,’ ” says Munn, 44. “The dads, they’re not carrying the baby. I carried Malcolm, so I understood from the very genesis, like, okay, I’ve got a life in me. Your body is changing and your energy is changing and your hair is changing and everything’s changing, so it feels very real all the time.”

“Even though it all felt very real for me, and our surrogate and I spoke all the time and she’d send me videos, it was a little bit of, ‘Oh wait, she’s coming,’ ” Munn continues. “I felt like an expectant father.”

Olivia Munn, John Mulaney and daughter Méi in September 2024.

Olivia Munn/ Instagram

Munn had to use a surrogate to expand her family because of her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2023. After a lymph node dissection, a nipple delay procedure and a double mastectomy, she had a “window” where she could do an egg retrieval before being sent into surgical menopause from having her uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries removed in a hysterectomy with oophorectomy.

“It was important to do it at that moment, but it was also scary because my type of cancer feeds on hormones, and there are a lot of hormone injections with IVF,” says Munn, who later had reconstructive surgery.

Munn’s doctor put her on a special IVF protocol for cancer patients and was able to retrieve seven eggs (at Munn’s age, about one in 10 eggs is healthy). After the eggs were fertilized, two of the embryos were “strong enough to be tested for abnormalities and the gender,” says Munn, whose heart, along with Mulaney’s, was set on a baby girl.

“I remember I was on a walk with John, and I said, ‘I really don’t think that I’ll be okay unless we get two girl embryos. I know this puts me at risk, but I just need you to support me,’ ” Munn recalls. “He said, ‘Whatever you need.’ ”

Olivia Munn photographed on May 19.

RYAN WEST

That same day, Munn’s doctor called and told her they had two healthy female embryos.

“That was a sign for me everything was going to be okay,” says Munn.

Then began the “emotional process” of finding a surrogate.

“The number one thing that I wanted in a surrogate was someone who was kind,” Munn says. “I just wanted her to be kind, and I needed her to understand that this is a path that I had to go on. This is not a choice I would’ve made for myself.”

Olivia Munn photographed on May 19.

RYAN WEST

A friend of a friend recommended an agency, and they gave Munn two profiles of potential surrogates. One of the women mentioned she wanted to help someone who had gone through cancer, and after meeting with her, Munn knew she was the right person to carry their daughter.

“The first thing I worried about was if I would be able to find somebody who would love and take care of my daughter as much as I would,” she says. “We were so lucky to find someone so kind who we bonded with so much.”

Olivia Munn, daughter Méi and son Malcolm photographed on May 19.

RYAN WEST

Still, as Munn grew a connection with her surrogate, with whom she remains close, she grappled with other fears.

“I had a concern of ‘Will my daughter know me?’ ” she remembers.

For more on Olivia Munn, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, or subscribe here.

After Méi’s arrival, Munn’s anxieties disappeared.

“Méi would cry, and I was the only one who could get her to stop,” she says. “I knew she knew me, and I knew her. She’s got this stick-straight hair that I had when I was a baby. I think because I wasn’t able to carry her, I really needed to see myself in her. I see myself in her so much.”

Olivia Munn photographed on May 19.

RYAN WEST

Two years out from her cancer diagnosis, “It’s so crazy to think that I’m sitting here with two amazing babies,” says Munn. “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.”