Olivia Munn Shows Mastectomy Scars in Skims Campaign

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Olivia Munn is owning her scars.

The X-Men: Apocalypse star revealed her double mastectomy scars today in a new photoshoot with Skims, after revealing earlier this year that she’d been diagnosed with and treated for Luminal B breast cancer. Since coming forward, Munn has become a strong advocate for extra breast cancer screening, including the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment test, a questionnaire that determines a person’s risk based on their medical history. Munn’s high score on the test spurred her doctors to bring her in for additional testing after her mammogram initially came back clear.

Munn waited a year before sharing her journey publicly, but now the mom of two is ready to bare all her scars — although she didn’t originally intend to. In an interview on Today, Munn revealed that she initially signed on simply to model Skims’ shapewear and leggings. “It wasn’t about my scar at all,” she explained. It wasn’t until the middle of the photoshoot, when Munn’s makeup artist was touching up around her scars, that the actress experienced a change of heart. “We got to the double mastectomy scars and they were just really hard to cover up,” Munn said, “and then I was looking in the mirror and I just thought, ‘I’m done being insecure about my scars.’”

She talked it out with the Skims team, who agreed to help Munn highlight her scars in the shoot. “It was really scary, but I feel like this is something I’ve been hiding for a long time now and it just feels like I can breathe a little bit more,” Munn explained. She was also inspired by knowing that so many breast cancer patients and survivors have the same scars and insecurities. “Skims is so iconic and associated with beauty and sex appeal, and cancer really doesn’t have that same connotation,” Munn said. “I just really hope that other women who have gone through my same path feel a little better after seeing [the photos].”

Munn has been open about the difficulty of accepting her appearance after her double mastectomy. “I just absolutely broke down,” she told People in April of seeing her body for the first time post-surgery. “I just thought, ‘What am I gonna wear?… oh my gosh, this is what I look like, and I don’t want to look at myself right now.’” She said that her appearance was “better” after getting reconstructive surgery, “but it’s not the same,” she explained. “And that’s OK, because I’m here. And I’m OK with that now, and I’m extremely happy that I had the option to have a double mastectomy… that I got the opportunity to fight… I know a lot of people in my situation don’t have that opportunity.”

Now, Munn is embracing both her scars and the strength they represent as she shares her story to raise awareness. “Every mark life has left behind on my body is proof of how hard I fought,” she wrote in an Instagram caption sharing the Skims photos. “I hope other women who have been self-conscious about their scars see these photos and feel all the love I’m sending.”

In the same caption, she wrote the word kintsugi, referencing the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with a lacquer mixed with powdered gold, which makes the cracks stand out and shimmer. It’s a beautiful technique and metaphor, as Munn seems to recognize: that there is beauty in putting ourselves back together, and our scars are a reminder of our resilience.

As part of the partnership, Skims will be donating 10 percent of the retail sales price for each bra sold in SKIMS stores and on Skims.com, excluding bralettes, to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. The initiative lasts from October 23, 2024, to the end of the month.

Before you go, shop these gifts for breast cancer patients and survivors: