Olivia Munn SKIMS
Olivia Munn is proudly displaying her double mastectomy scars in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The actress, activist and breast cancer survivor stars in a powerful new Skims campaign, created in partnership with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which was revealed on Wednesday, October 23, via Instagram. In the campaign video, Munn, 44, opens up about her experience of being diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer at age 41 in April 2023.
“Someone said this phrase to me and it meant a lot, and it really touched me,” Munn began. “When it comes to breast cancer they say, ‘Welcome to the worst club with the best members.’”
After surviving cancer, Munn shared that she sees her scars as a sign of her strength. “When I look at the scars or how my breasts look different or how clothes fit on me differently, I feel a lot of gratitude,” she said. “The way my body looks is just a representation of how hard I fought.”
For Munn, the battle meant having a double mastectomy and four surgeries in 10 months.
Speaking to The Today Show about her journey and partnership with Skims, Munn revealed that she also had her ovaries, uterus and fallopian tubes removed just before having a fifth surgery.
In September, Munn and her husband, John Mulaney, welcomed a daughter named May June, who was born via surrogate. (The couple also share a 3-year-old son, Malcolm).
Munn is so overjoyed by the addition to her family that when she was asked to appear as a special guest in a two-part episode of the Susan G. Komen podcast, “Real Pink,” she brought baby May with her to the recording.
Olivia Munn got candid about her breast cancer diagnosis and fertility journey while speaking at a panel during Hello Sunshine’s Shine Away event connected by AT&T on Saturday, October 5, in Los Angeles. Us Weekly was in attendance when Munn, 44, detailed her decision to freeze her eggs multiple times throughout her 30s and 40s […]
Part one features Munn in conversation with Susan G. Komen president and CEO Paula Schneider. Both breast cancer survivors and moms of two, the duo discussed their health journeys, while Munn also opened up about why she decided not to conceal her scars in the Skims campaign.
Olivia Munn SKIMS
Munn began by saying she was “so moved and excited” to work with Skims, because “[it’s] such an iconic [brand], and when people think of Skims, they think of beauty and sexiness.” She continued: “And with breast cancer, I think that it’s not always the first thing that people think about. It may be, like, not even in the top 100.”
Munn, however, saw the campaign as an opportunity to help shift the conversation and perspective surrounding the disease. “I look at breast cancer as a battle and as a war, and as anyone who’s gone through it as women who have, you know, slayed the dragons and have fought the dragons,” she said. “I was just so excited about the synergy between the two.”
A few days before shooting the campaign, Munn and the team at Skims had a fitting for the looks she would wear in the photos, and she requested they cover up her mastectomy scars.
“I wanted to only wear certain pieces that wouldn’t show certain scars,” Munn said. “They were very understanding of that, didn’t hesitate and switched things out for me.”
Munn was getting ready to switch into her second look for the campaign after taking photos in a black bodysuit when she had a change of heart in the makeup chair.
“It just kind of hit me after she touched up one scar,” Munn said. “I was thinking about the first time I saw them and how shocking it was for me. And I thought, ‘You know what? I do look at these scars as proof of how hard I fought.’”
Olivia Munn SKIMS
Munn explained that her decision to bare her mastectomy scars was more than skin-deep.
“I want to not only embrace the scars right now but show other women who have these same scars that there’s nothing to feel bad about, there’s nothing to feel ashamed about. And that we really can love them, like truly love them, and feel pride in them.”
She then went to Skims and suggested that she show her body as it is instead. “They were like, ‘This would be amazing if that’s what you feel comfortable doing,’” Munn recalled.
After the photo shoot, Munn knew that she made the right decision for herself as well as others.
“I’m really proud of the photos, and I am proud of myself for pushing past that fear,” she said. “I hope that other women see the billboards and online and [in] magazines and feel beautiful knowing that they have the same scars that I have, and that I’m embracing them.”
To further raise breast cancer awareness and fund research, Skims is donating 10 percent of the retail price for each bra sold in U.S. Skims stores and on Skims.com from October 23 to October 31 to Susan G. Komen.