NEWSOlivia Munn Reveals Therapist 'Encouraged' Her to Stay in a Toxic Relationship During 'Hardest Period' of Her Life: 'The Stories I Would Tell Seemed Unbelievable'
Olivia Munn shares son Malcolm and daughter Méi with husband John Mulaney.
Olivia Munn is opening up about a “bad, bad period” in her life.
While on the Tuesday, February 18, episode of Monica Lewinsky’s “Reclaiming” podcast, the actress, 44, recalled the time her therapist recommended she stay in a toxic relationship that was causing her “unhappiness and fear.”
“In that particular situation, I had a therapist who I really loved and I know that she cared about me — or at least I thought she did,” she explained of the past romance. “I would constantly, from the very beginning, say, ‘I don’t know about this, I don’t think this is the right [relationship,] I want to get out,’ and then it got worse and worse and I’d be calling her crying like, ‘I gotta get out.’”
The mother-of-two — who shares son Malcolm and daughter Méi with husband John Mulaney — said the professional had repeatedly “encouraged [her] to stay” despite the red flags.
“She thought that my ‘picker’ was off, and she would look at it as like, ‘This person on paper looked great,’ and when there was couples therapy, they knew how to present the right way. Then the stories I would tell seemed unbelievable,” she continued.
The Love Wedding Repeat alum noted the experience taught her to trust herself in difficult situations.
Olivia Munn said the partner she had at the time 'on paper looked great,' so the therapist encouraged her to stay.
“From that experience, learning that I gotta go with my gut and I gotta be decisive with some things if it’s coming from a place where I want to survive,” she explained. “I realized that I’m not happy.”
Munn noted the “catalyst” from her decision to heal came after she finally called it quits with her former lover, who “drained” her.
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“I don’t know if there’s a word to describe what that relationship was like. It was without a doubt the hardest period of my life, being in that,” she revealed.
The Magic Mike star added the “tumultuous family dynamic” she was brought into made her feel “really trapped,” but she eventually hit back.
Olivia Munn said the experience with the therapist taught her to 'go with my gut.'
“It taught me how to stand up and fight for myself, so that was great,” she stated. “I truly had no idea that I could be manipulated and hurt that way, that I wouldn’t just get out of something that was dangerous to my psyche.”
The brunette beauty — who tied the knot with Mulaney in 2024 — said she never wants her two young kids to ever go through a similar situation.
Olivia Munn has since moved on with John Mulaney, whom she married in 2024.
“When they say like, ‘Oh, just go on the date! You never know. You might like him, you might at least learn what you don’t like,’ I think some people who are subconsciously vulnerable — which is what I think I was, because I had no idea I was this vulnerable to anything that had happened to me post that first date — is that if you feel in your gut something’s not right, then don’t do that first date or get out right away, because one date could take years off your life,” Munn warned.
“[It’s] not just the period that you’re with that person but, if you’re lucky to get out, the years [of] healing yourself afterward,” she shared.
The actress' longest public relationship was with Aaron Rodgers, 41, whom she dated from 2014 to 2017.
