Olivia Munn has found comfort from Catherine, Princess of Wales amid her cancer battle.
Olivia Munn is in recovery after being diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago
The 45-year-old actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023 and revealed how the 44-year-old British royal – who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of the disease in 2024 before announcing that she was in remission the following year – struck a chord with her about adjusting to life after treatment.
Olivia, who is in recovery from the disease, told People: “Kate Middleton had talked about this recently, and she said it so succinctly (and) it really touched me and gave me a sense of peace, because I finally had words behind it.
“She was like, ‘You think that the big things are the things you have to worry about’ – I’m paraphrasing her – ‘But it’s the treatment after you’ve gone through the big things that’s really taxing and hard on you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, somebody else if feeling that.'”
The Your Friends and Neighbors star added: “That’s where it feels really good… when you hear other people’s experiences, because it is true – you feel so much better when you know you’re not alone.”
Olivia’s comments refer to Catherine discussing the challenge of finding a “new normal” after cancer treatment on a visit to Colchester Hospital last July.
The princess said: “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment. Treatment’s done, then it’s like, ‘I can crack on, get back to normal’, but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult.
“You have to find your new normal, and that takes time – and it’s a roller coaster, it’s not smooth, like you except it to be. But the reality is you go through hard times.”
Munn underwent multiple surgeries after being diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of breast cancer and admits taking lots of medication in the aftermath has been challenging.
The Newsroom actress said: “I’ve been open about this, that with breast cancer, there’s so much medication afterwards for certain people.
“And for someone like me – and the type of breast cancer I had, and how aggressive it was, and for the age I am, and not having been premenopausal when I was diagnosed – there’s so many more medications I have to take. And there are a lot of side effects and they have been really hard on me.”
Olivia continued: “I guess I was hard on myself because I would ask other friends who were on the same treatment plan as me if they’d had any of my symptoms, and none of them did. Not one person said that they had exhaustion or mood swings or body aches. I thought, ‘I’m the only one getting this.'”
