Olivia Munn has parenting “breakdowns,” just like the rest of us.
Munn, who shares 3-year-old son Malcolm and 5-month-old daughter Méi with husband John Mulaney, opened up about an emotional moment while co-hosting an episode Monday of “TODAY with Jenna & Friends.”
During a family trip to New York City, where Mulaney was performing on Broadway, Munn was on solo parenting duty.
“My 3 year-old hit his limit,” Munn told Jenna Hager Bush. “It was screaming, crying and saying things to me where my feelings were getting hurt … and then he didn’t want me to be with my daughter because the jealousy was coming in and I just broke down crying — a cry I have never cried … I was so distraught.”
Munn, who first shared her breast cancer diagnosis in March 2024 and has been open about her treatments since, shared an sudden “realization” with Jenna: Gratitude is everything.
“I said, ‘You know what? God willing we get to work as much as we are working now forever, and god willing we’re shifting and jumping around and moving everywhere and we’re so lucky,’” said Munn. “Every time there is a breakdown or a fit or whatever, it just makes me laugh.”
The 44-year-old added that she actually has to turn away from her children to giggle, “so I don’t condone it” but “everything just makes me really happy.”
Jenna commiserated about her “wild” children, Mila, 11, Poppy, 9 and Hal, 5, with husband Henry Hager.
“I have a sixth grader! She’s in middle school,” Jenna said of Mila. “I love it.”
Jenna relayed advice she received from a fellow mom.
“Molly Shannon told Hoda (Kotb) and I once, she goes, ‘You know, teenage girls get this bad rap, but if you can live in it and sort of meet them where they are and understand that they have to … have their own independence — and therefore, there’s a little bit of conflict — and so, it’s really, really beautiful.”
Munn, who compared going from one to two children to landing on Mars, explained that people have been preparing her for the shock of her children’s inevitable independence.
Jenna just went through it with her eldest.
“I had this really crazy realization maybe two years ago,” recalled Jenna. “We’d always had Halloween with our family and family friends … and Mila, my daughter was like, ‘I want to go trick-or-treating with other people.’ At first, I was like, ‘Wait — what? Like, how dare you,’ but then I realized: I’m not going to be in all my kids’ memories … we should make our kids feel confident so they can go and be their own people.”
Jenna added, “But, you know what? I’m still kind of her bestie.”
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