Olivia Munn has admitted "facing death" helped her let go of her postpartum anxiety.
Olivia Munn has been battling breast cancer
The 'Newsroom' actress was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer last year and she knew she had to let go of all the negative feelings she had experienced in the wake of the birth of her and John Mulaney's son Malcolm, now two.
Speaking in 'The Kelly Clarkson Show', she admitted: "I couldn't climb a mountain carrying all this extra weight. And when I got to the end of [treatment], I didn't want to pick it back up again."
The 43-year-old actress underwent an MRI and an ultrasound after genetic testing flagged she was at high risk of developing cancer, and she was found to have several lumps in her right breast.
Olivia warned how her doctor told her she needed to "be aggressive" in fighting the disease.
She recalled how the medic told her: “I wanted you to come in and see me in the office because I wanted to look you in the eye and tell you you’re too young to have this much cancer in your breast. And you have a baby at home, and I need you to be aggressive because one is right by your lymph nodes and we need to move fast.”
The 'X Men: Apocalypse' star agreed to undergo a double mastectomy, and was relieved she did as they found a "tangerine-sized section" of cancer in her left breast too.
Olivia will always be grateful for the advice she received from her doctor.
She said: “She literally saved my life. She’s my guardian angel.”
The 'Magic Mike' actress also opted for a hysterectomy and oophorectomy but wanted to do an egg retrieval before the surgeries so that she and John could still have the option to have more children.
She recently told 'Good Morning America': “John and I had a long talk about it. We realised that we weren’t done growing our family.
“That’s a scary process because I have a cancer that feeds off of hormones so I knew there was a risk and our doctor said, ‘Look, we’re gonna get one for you and then we’re gonna call it.’
“And then our doctor called and he said, ‘Hey we got the results back. It’s two healthy embryos, and I… I mean we just started bawling, crying, both of us.”
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