“Hold on a second.” She jumps up and returns a minute later with a silent, bleary-eyed 20-pound smoosh ball. “That is Méi.” I’m not a child particular person—even once I had my very own infants, I used to be not a child particular person (I do know, not an important look). However squishy, smooshy child Méi in her little cotton floral gown and matching bloomers is 80% thighs and extremely cute. Munn locations her in my arms and there she stays. Okay, so we’re doing this. After which I understood why. This child is like an advert for infants. No crying or fussing or squirming. Simply chill.
“Do you suppose you’ll inform her that you simply had a surrogate?” I ask.
“Oh yeah, the surrogate’s nonetheless in our life,” says Munn. “She was a greater pregnant lady than I ever might have been.”
Munn and Mulaney discovered their surrogate by means of an company. “To begin with, she doesn’t know any celebrities,” says Munn, who solely cared about one factor: “Above the whole lot else, I simply wished her to be form.” They selected a girl in Massachusetts. “She’s an unimaginable mom, an unimaginable human being, an unimaginable good friend, simply fantastic,” Munn says. “I wanted [her] to know that I wanted to go this route. It wasn’t for superficial causes or as a result of I wished to place my work first. I’m not saying that any of these causes aren’t legitimate for these individuals. And I’m not judging anybody who makes these choices based mostly on that, however I wanted her to know this may be laborious for me.”
She pauses for a beat and appears out on the ocean. Then she’s again.
“It makes me emotional—it’s your child, and the child is some place else on the planet.” Child Méi ignores us and focuses on my hand, attempting to make sense of my fingers.
Munn and Mulaney have been within the supply room when Méi was born. “The primary particular person John hugged was the husband, he gave him a giant kiss on the cheek…. It was simply fantastic.”
All good, proper? New child, full nest, technically cancer-free. (“Though my medical doctors don’t use that time period,” she says, “as a result of we’re nonetheless in a diligent struggle for the subsequent 5 years battling any most cancers cells which are nonetheless in my physique—which is a excessive probability.”) This appeared like a good time to be rounding in on the pleased ending. Besides.
“I actually examined John’s endurance,” she says. “And thank God he’s essentially the most affected person particular person and may actually take quite a bit.” A aspect impact of her estrogen-zapping most cancers remedy was making her really feel like an individual she didn’t acknowledge. “I felt like I had one hand on a door with a monster attempting to interrupt in, and I used to be simply holding it there the entire time…. Simply at any second, it’s going to burst by means of.”
On the flight again to California after Méi was born, “I grabbed maintain of John, and for the primary time, defined the monster behind the door. I defined that I don’t like being this fashion. I’ve to be on this drugs to maintain my life protected, however I’m so out of my very own physique and I really feel like I don’t have any management over this. I broke down crying, saying, ‘I need assistance.’ And he simply mentioned, ‘Okay, we’re going to go to your oncologist. We’re going to determine this out….’ We tried two extra drugs and now we’re on one which fortunately is working.”
You understand how there are individuals who say “we” to suggest they’re one, like saying “we’re pregnant,” and also you throw up slightly in your mouth? That’s not what’s occurring right here. All through Munn’s—what do you name postpartum nervousness, plus most cancers, plus 5 surgical procedures?—properly, no matter it’s, she and Mulaney have been in it collectively as a lot as two individuals may very well be. When she says issues like “we tried two extra drugs,” it’s not an affectation. You get the sense that it was all taking place to each of them collectively.
