But when it comes to their road to romance, perhaps fans have heard more than enough.
One month after John checked into rehab in September 2020, he relapsed, leading Seth Meyers, Nick Kroll, Fred Armisen, Natasha Lyonne and other friends to stage an intervention that December.
In both interviews and his Netflix special Baby J, John has credited those pals with saving his life, but his union to artist Anna Marie Tendler didn’t fare quite as well.
In May 2021, Anna revealed she was “heartbroken that John has decided to end our marriage.” Just days after the divorce announcement, word spread that the comic was dating Olivia.
In reality though, “I went to rehab in September,” the 42-year-old detailed on a September 2021 episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers. “I got out in October. I move out of my home from my ex-wife. I host Saturday Night Live on Halloween. I relapse on drugs after the show.”It wasn’t until that spring—following his second rehab stay—he clarified, that he went to L.A. and connected with Olivia.”She’s kind of held my hand through that hell,” John continued, “and we’re having a baby together.”Still, some followers made their own assumptions. “They think they know our relationship so well. When in reality, they don’t,” Olivia told the Los Angeles Times in November 2021, the same month Malcolm was born. “There’s no way anyone could know what any of his relationships were or what our relationship is.”
And because anything she’d say would “feed into a narrative that’s just not true,” she continued,” she refrained from going into detail, noting people often “ignore really specific public signs and actions that completely contradict the false narrative and that, for whatever reason, it’s easier to blame me.””If I try to say anything, I run the risk of being called messy or not telling the truth,” The Newsroom alum continued. “The only way to win, for me, is to pull back and to not play the game at all.”
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So for the next few years, Olivia and John divulged more of their parenting experiences than they did details of their romance. In fact, the duo didn’t even make their red carpet debut as a couple until January 2024. And three months later, they unveiled something much bigger, Olivia revealing she’d been diagnosed with stage 1 Luminal B breast cancer the previous April.”You never know what’s going on in someone’s life,” she explained to Michael Strahan on a May 2024 episode of Good Morning America, “that privately people are battling things that you’d never know.”However, Olivia decided to publicly share her cancer journey to encourage people to do a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment—noting it was her high-risk score that led her to get an MRI after having previously gotten a clear ultrasound, mammogram and genetic testing results.
By the end of May 2023, she’d undergone three surgeries: A nipple delay, lymph node dissection and double mastectomy. And because she and John still had dreams of growing their family, she had an egg retrieval procedure, which she’d done twice before, the following month and created embryos.”That’s a scary process because I have a cancer that feeds off of hormones, so I knew there was a risk,” the Your Friends & Neighbors celeb remembered on GMA. “And our doctor said, ‘Look, we’re gonna get one for you and then we’re gonna call it.’ Our doctor called and he said, ‘Hey, we got the results back: It’s two healthy embryos.’ We just started bawling crying, both of us.”Olivia proceeded to have two more surgeries: breast reconstruction in September 2023 and a partial hysterectomy/oophorectomy to remove her uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries that April after struggling with the side effects of the ovarian suppression drug Lupron. Through it all, John was by her side.”Olivia and I have been through a lot of things together in the past couple years,” he told Vogue in May 2024. “Just side-by-side, supporting each other through anything. And as her guy, I felt both scared and protective. Even with Malcolm in her lap and me there holding her hand, she was going to be physically fighting this disease alone.”
Though Olivia expressed how having him there made the experience less isolating.”It was such a struggle to go through every day, but he was there making the hard things so much easier,” she told E! News in February. “He was making the things that made me really emotional less sad and just made me feel really protected and safe.”
Because carrying a baby was no longer feasible, she and John explored welcoming a second child via surrogate. And as they waited for their little one to arrive, they tied the knot in July 2024. The guest list incluced Malcolm, their officiant Sam Waterson, who starred with Olivia on The Newsroom, and his wife Lynn Louisa Woodruff. John even found a way to make Méi a part of the big day ahead of her birth.”I was telling John, ‘Oh man, I wish that she was here because, in the photos, when she looks back on the day Mommy and Daddy got married, Malcolm will be there but she won’t be there,'” Olivia said on an April episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “So, he found this vintage locket and he put her sonogram picture inside and he surprised me with it. It was very emotional.”Although, there were plenty of laughs too thanks to Malcolm.”He actually went to the bathroom in his diaper during it and announced it mid-vows,” John said during a March episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “Very sweaty little 2-year-old in a tuxedo just went, ‘I’m pooping.'”
Instagram / Olivia Munn
Two months later, Méi made her debut.”I had so many profound emotions about not being able to carry my daughter,” Olivia wrote in a September 2024 Instagram post. “When I first met our gestational surrogate we spoke mother to mother. She showed me so much grace and understanding, I knew I had found a real-life angel. Words cannot express my gratitude that she kept our baby safe for 9 months and made our dreams come true.”And while she and John keep it real about parenting ups and downs, they’re loving the ride.”Malcolm is 3 so he’s on the go. He needs a lot of entertainment,” she told E! in February. As for Méi, “She is just the squishiest, happiest baby. She’s so easy. We just kind of cart her around everywhere. Just being at home and being with them is our favorite thing to do.”In terms of her cancer journey, Olivia shared at the February TIME Women of the Year gala that she still has “years to go” in her treatment. And while the road isn’t easy, she’s glad John is there to walk this path with her and still find many moments of joy.”We were talking the other day that, in the past couple years, we’ve laughed so much through everything,” he told E! News in November. “So I don’t mean to sound corny or overly saccharine, but we’ve been so tight and had a lot of fun, despite everything.” The proof? It’s in her and John’s family photos. Check out their sweetest moments.