John Mulaney is opening up about how Olivia Munn helped him stay sober at the start of their romance.
As Perezcious readers know, the SNL writer struggled with addiction issues before checking into rehab in 2020 for cocaine and alcohol dependency. His friends had staged an intervention because things had gotten so bad, and he was finally ready to take steps toward change. He recalled those tough days, saying in GQ’s 2024 Man of the Year edition out on Tuesday:
“There was a time when I would have told you that I could not fly, sleep, or perform unless I had a Klonopin. I would have said, ‘It sucks because I don’t always want to take Klonopin and Xanax, but I have to.’”
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He also recalled an “insane” night at the height of his addiction struggles when he took too many drugs and thought he was going to die… only to do it all again just days later. He said:
“I thought, ‘Okay … I’m going to totally slow down.’ That was like a Tuesday. And Thursday night, I did it again.”
Whoa. Scary!
After heading to treatment and splitting from his wife Anna Marie Tendler, John reconnected with Olivia in 2021 after meeting once in 2013. It wasn’t long into their romance when she got pregnant with their first child together, Malcolm, though they didn’t become an official couple at first. They went ahead with the pregnancy knowing they’d both be involved, but they didn’t decide to raise the boy as an item until two months before his birth. Wow!
Despite this, Olivia played a HUGE role in John’s recovery! The actor revealed that his now-wife chose to stage a mini-intervention of her own during their relationship. It was when she was six months preggers that she decided to start administering random drug tests to make sure the comedian really was staying clean. And while some people maybe wouldn’t like this, John really appreciated the chance to prove himself, he reflected:
“It’s like a relief … I like to be able to not even have that be a question in her or anyone else’s mind. Something about peeing in that cup is like, I’m walking this walk. It gives me confidence.”
Amazing!
Sharing her perspective, Olivia revealed she “barely knew” the Big Mouth star when they got pregnant and that what they were doing before that point “wasn’t anything close to ‘dating’” and they weren’t even living on the same coasts (she was in LA and he was in NY). That said, John was “really excited” about the baby and telling his parents the news. She believed the pregnancy was “the one thing that made him seem light and happy” during this challenging chapter of his life. But he was also so fresh into his recovery, causing some worries. She shared:
“It was like watching a man in a tsunami. I was watching someone newly sober, at the edge of a cliff, and I didn’t know him well enough to help him.”
The X-Men: Apocalypse lead continued:
“In my head, I’m thinking, I don’t know really what’s happening with this guy. It feels pretty shaky. But then I would see him at the Troubadour and be like, ‘Man, he’s on fire. He’s just that phenomenal.'”
John told her at the time that he was afraid he’d relapse, so that’s seemingly why she chose to get more involved in his sobriety journey, even before they knew what their romantic relationship was going to look like. Still to this day, she gives him random drug tests. It’s awesome they were able to find something that gives them both peace of mind and helps him stay on track.
They’re now the proud parents of two kids, including 2-month-old daughter Méi June, whom they welcomed via surrogate after Olivia’s breast cancer battle. Malcolm turns 3 later this month. John has never shied away from praising Olivia for helping him with his sobriety, but this really paints an even clearer picture of how instrumental she was.
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