John Mulaney said he handled wife Olivia Munn’s cancer-related painkillers and other medication without temptation of relapsing
“The obsession of it was gone,” he told Ted Danson during the season two debut of Danson and Woody Harrelson’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Mulaney has been vocal about getting sober from cocaine and alcohol
John Mulaney wasn’t tempted by wife Olivia Munn’s cancer-related painkillers amid his sobriety journey.
The comic, 42, talked about caring for Munn, 44, after she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in both breasts – which required multiple surgeries including a double mastectomy – on Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s SiriusXM podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
“I brought her a tray with apple juice, something she wanted to eat that her mom had made in the kitchen, and then it had Oxycontin and some sort of nerve medication and a Xanax, which they also gave just for rest and recovery,” the Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney star told Danson of a particular instance in Munn’s recovery.
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John Mulaney and Ted Danson during the taping of the season two debut of “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”.
“It never crossed my mind that I was holding these medications in my hand. The obsession of it was gone. I thought, ‘Oh, I’m so far beyond that, and I can be a good butler with the best client.’ “
Mulaney has been vocal about getting sober from cocaine and alcohol in 2005. In 2020, he checked into rehab after a relapse, remaining sober since.
“People stay the same in so many ways — and I’m still the same person I was when I was like, five, in so many ways — but I will admit, it’s a huge change. Just a huge way of looking at everything. I’m shocked I did it. I’m shocked I was able to do it.”
“Become sober?” Danson asked.
“To actually stick to it in every way. To not have, ‘Well, I still do this.’ To not, ‘Well, I’m trying,’ “ he said. “Like, nothing wrong or shameful about relapse. I just mean I’m shocked, always, that it landed.”
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Danson then asked Mulaney if he ever feels “aggrieved” enough to be tempted by drugs — or if he can see those triggers “two miles out?”
“Oh yeah … I’m very lucky that life’s been so great that it’s always 30 miles out,” Mulaney explained, “But I’ll be doing something and I go, ‘Huh, you really want to be this exhausted, stretched thin, a little aggrieved?’ “
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John Mulaney and Olivia Munn at a Women’s Cancer Research Fund benefit in Beverly Hills, Calif.
“The word ‘entitled’ pops into your brain?” Danson asked.
“A little bit, yeah,” Mulaney replied. “Luckily those things are miles and miles off … That’s part of it, is just always knowing, so addicted to the self-control of it in some ways and so happy that I’m always present when I’m with my kids and Olivia and friends and everything.”
“I was in a bad neighborhood of my brain for a while,” he said. “You always have respect for it, that it’s still there. You go, ‘I see you. I know you’re there. But that’s not my daily life.’ “
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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