Olivia Munn is opening up about the “devastation” she felt following her breast reconstruction surgery after she had to have a double mastectomy as a result of her breast cancer diagnosis.
The actress stopped by the SHE MD Podcast, where she spoke with her OBGYN, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, and women’s advocate and influencer, Mary Alice Haney, about what she was worried about when she had her breast reconstruction surgery.
“I didn’t want to have big breasts. I didn’t want them to look like a boob job. [The surgeon] was just very clear, like, ‘It’s going to look like that,’” she said. “All I care about is that I’m alive, and I’m here for my baby. But putting that to the side, I’m like, one day, people will forget or not know, or maybe I’ll never tell people that I had cancer, but they’ll look at me and go, ‘Oh, what a bad boob job.’”
The actress explained that she was worried that people would talk behind her back about how her breasts are overly round or hard, without knowing that she had them redone because of her cancer.
“I was just thinking like, ‘Oh, I’m losing my breasts. I’m going into a world and society where I don’t know how people are going to treat me, how I’m going to react to it,’” Munn continued. “It was just like all of that at once. It wasn’t even the cancer because I was like, ‘OK, this is the plan. Get the cancer out aggressively.’”
Following the surgery, The Newsroom actress admitted she cried the first time she saw her new breasts, despite her doctor thinking the results were “fantastic.”
“I was by myself in my bathroom, and I looked at them, and I cried in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever cried in my life,” Munn said. “I was devastated. I didn’t recognize myself. I didn’t know how I would ever dress myself again. I thought, ‘Oh, there are so many styles, there are so many things that I’ll never be able to wear.’ It just looked like someone took off my breasts and then took [some tape and paper] and stuff and Tupperware, and they’re like, ‘Here.’”
She revealed that she feels “much better” about the results after some time went by, but she still gets a little self-conscious about the appearance of her breasts. So, she grew her hair out in order to hide the scars a bit.
“Maybe one day I’ll get more comfortable with it,” Munn said. “I don’t look the same, but that’s OK. I’m here.”
