Yesterday, I wrote about photos from the weekend of an obviously pregnant Olivia Munn. Then, last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, John Mulaney appeared and confirmed it: he’s having a child with Olivia Munn. Not only that, he timelined his breakup with Anna Marie Tendler amidst relapses and rehab, his stint on Meyers’ show as a writer last fall, and his somewhat bizarre appearance on the show last November, which got a lot of people wondering online if John Mulaney was okay. It turns out: he was not okay. In a nearly 20-minute-long segment, Mulaney talks about relapsing and admits that while he was sober in the moment when he appeared on Meyers’ show, that appearance came in the midst of a relapse following his first trip to rehab earlier in the fall.
Mulaney has been doing shows all summer, and you can tell from his chat with Meyers that he’s got some material here and when he comes back with a new hour, it’s going to be about this past year. You can also tell from his chat with Meyers that it’s going to be as painful as it is funny. Mulaney has always had a relaxed persona as a performer—it’s a big part of his appeal—but there’s a new edge of chagrin and sheepishness that is still raw on his words. Maybe that’s because he’s talking on national television about very personal subjects; maybe it’s because Meyers was at his intervention, so he has to face someone who saw him at his worst; but it’s also because, for all that Mulaney includes personal tidbits in his comedy, he’s never been a confessional comic. The meat and potatoes of his act is observational, when he does relate personal anecdotes, it’s only to highlight universal experiences. Still, a lot of people took his stage persona at face value and assumed how he presented his previous relationship on stage must be exactly how it was in real life, too.
But obviously, things were not the same off stage as the jokes he told on stage. According to his own timeline, Mulaney moved out of his home with Tendler in October, following his first stint in rehab last September. So, if you’re wondering about overlap, even though he didn’t file for divorce until the new year, it appears there was none. (He also clarifies that he and Munn first met at Meyers’ wedding in 2015, before reconnecting earlier this year.) There was, however, an intervention, a second, longer trip to rehab, and now recovery, a new relationship, and a baby. I look forward to the new hour when he’s ready to share it, but until then, the gossip book on John Mulaney and Olivia Munn is closed. Congratulations to the expectant parents, best wishes in recovery, and break a leg on your next stage, John.
