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Olivia Munn and John Mulaney are still figuring out if they want to expand their full house.
At the moment, the actress, 44, and the comedian, 42, are busy with two bustling careers, two kids — their son Malcolm, 3, and daughter Méi, 8 months — and two dogs.
“Two [kids] is a lot,” Munn tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story, on newsstands Friday. “We’re still talking if we are done growing our family.”
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The Your Friends & Neighbors star says she and Mulaney still have the option to pursue having another daughter “if we want,” as they have one remaining viable frozen female embryo from when she did IVF and an egg retrieval following her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2023. They welcomed Méi via surrogate in September.
After a clear mammogram and testing negative for the BRCA cancer gene, Munn was diagnosed only after an MRI — which her ob-gyn ordered after determining she was high-risk for breast cancer using the free online Tyrer-Cuzick risk assessment tool — discovered a spot in her right breast.
After a lymph node dissection, a nipple delay procedure and a double mastectomy, Munn had “a window” where she could do the egg retrieval before being sent into surgical menopause from having her uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries removed in a hysterectomy with oophorectomy.
“It was important to do it at that moment, but it was also scary because my type of cancer feeds on hormones, and there are a lot of hormone injections with IVF,” says Munn, who later had reconstructive surgery.
Olivia Munn/Instagram
Munn’s doctor put her on a special IVF protocol for cancer patients and was able to retrieve seven eggs (at Munn’s age, about one in 10 eggs is healthy). After the eggs were fertilized, two of the embryos were “strong enough to be tested for abnormalities and the gender,” says Munn, whose heart, along with Mulaney’s, was set on a baby girl.
“I remember I was on a walk with John, and I said, ‘I really don’t think that I’ll be okay unless we get two girl embryos. I know this puts me at risk, but I just need you to support me,'” Munn recalls. “He said, ‘Whatever you need.’”
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That same day, Munn’s doctor called and told her they had two healthy female embryos.
“That was a sign for me everything was going to be okay,” says Munn.
Then began the process of finding a surrogate. A friend of a friend recommended an agency, and they gave her two profiles for potential surrogates. One of the women mentioned she wanted to help someone who had gone through cancer, and after meeting with her, Munn knew she was the right person to carry their daughter.
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“The first thing I worried about was if I would be able to find somebody who would love and take care of my daughter as much as I would,” she says. “We were so lucky to find someone so kind who we bonded with so much.”
Still, as Munn grew a connection with her surrogate, with whom she remains close, she grappled with other fears. “I had a concern of ‘Will my daughter know me?’” she remembers.
After Méi’s arrival, Munn’s anxieties disappeared.
For more on Olivia Munn, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
“Méi would cry, and I was the only one who could get her to stop,” she says. “I knew she knew me, and I knew her. She’s got this stick-straight hair that I had when I was baby. I think because I wasn’t able to carry her, I really needed to see myself in her. I see myself in her so much.”
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Munn — who is currently filming season 2 of Your Friends & Neighbors in New York — describes Méi as the “squishiest, happiest baby” who loves her big brother.
“Anywhere he goes, she lights up and she follows him,” Munn says. “He’s teaching her how to talk. We have this great video of him telling her to say dada, and she says dada right back. It’s amazing. I asked if he could teach her mama, but he said no.”
Two years after her cancer diagnosis, “it’s so crazy to think that I’m sitting here with two amazing babies,” says Munn. “I’m just so happy and grateful, and I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to do. I didn’t know how much strength I had inside me.”
Your Friends and Neighbors is streaming now on Apple TV+.
