Olivia Munn and John Mulaney are among many celebrity couples who have welcomed a child via surrogate.
The actress, 44, who is starring in Apple TV’s Your Friends and Neighbors, gave birth to her son Malcolm, three, but was unable to carry her daughter Méi, who was born in September 2024, due to having a hysterectomy and double mastectomy as part of her breast cancer treatment.
The Newsroom actress had her eggs frozen and she and Mulaney, 42, turned to a surrogate to help them become parents again.
In an interview with Self Magazine, The Gateway actress spoke about her experience of turning to another woman to carry her baby, also revealing that the surrogate is still in their lives and is someone she now considers a friend.
‘The surrogate’s still in our life,’ the actress said when asked if she will tell her daughter her birth story. ‘She was a better pregnant woman than I could have ever been.’
Olivia Munn, 44, is opening up about her surrogacy journey with husband John Mulaney, 42. The couple welcomed their daughter Méi in September 2024
The couple engaged an agency to help them find the surrogate.
‘First of, she doesn’t know any celebrities,’ Munn explained, adding, ‘Above everything else, I just wanted her to be kind.’
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She described the woman as ‘an incredible mother, an incredible human being, an incredible friend, just wonderful.’
The Violet star said it was important for the woman to know why she so desperately needed her help.
‘I needed [her] to understand that I needed to go this route,’ said the Gracie Allen Award winner said.
‘It wasn’t for superficial reasons or because I wanted to put my work first. I’m not saying that any of those reasons aren’t valid for those people,’ she explained.
Clarifying Munn added, ‘And I’m not judging anyone who makes those decisions based on that, but I needed her to understand this would be hard for me.’
The surrogate lived in Mᴀssachusetts with her family while she was carrying baby Méi.
‘She wanted to be a surrogate, because she wanted to help mothers who were struggling to carry their own children,’ Munn said in video on the Self magazine Instagram account.
‘I think the most surprising part of the surrogacy journey was the sadness I felt from not being able to carry my daughter really dissipated once all of my hopes and dreams were placed into this other woman and I knew that she was really kind and cared so much I just sat in my graтιтude instead of living in any fear, or sadness, or concern.
The actress gave birth to her son Malcolm, now three but was unable to have another child due to having a complete hysterectomy and a double mastectomy as part of her treatment for breast cancer in 2023
Munn described the woman who carried Méi, now six months, as someone ‘wanted to help mothers who were struggling to carry their own children,’ in an interview with Self magazine
Munn said her sadness at not being able to give birth to Méi was ‘dissipated once all of my hopes and dreams were placed into this other woman,’ who she has described as kind and an incredible mother
Munn told Self magazine that after Méi was born, ‘The first person John hugged was the husband, he gave him a big kiss on the cheek…It was just wonderful’
The Munn/Mulaney family is still in touch with the woman who gave birth to their daughter
She then offered advice to those looking into becoming parents via surrogacy.
‘I think what you’re going to find is that it’s so incredibly beautiful.’
You know, when you meet people who want to do this, you realize there’s so much good in the world, and you’ll feel that. .
At first there’s the sadness, and the concern, and you’re losing control, but it is soon replaced by so much love and and so much graтιтude and so much hope in the world.
Munn and Mulaney were in the delivery room when Méi was born and so was the surrogate’s husband.
‘The first person John hugged was the husband, he gave him a big kiss on the cheek…It was just wonderful,’ Munn told Self Magazine.
