In an extended interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Tuesday, John Mulaney opened up about his tumultuous past year and revealed the truth behind headlines about his drug relapse, trip to rehab and relationship with Olivia Munn.
Mulaney started off by indicating he may not have been well during his most recent appearance on the show in 2020, responding to Meyers’ prompt of him being there with, “I’m told that I was.”
He then recapped his headline-making year, which started in September of 2020, with a stint in rehab, Mulaney says. He explained that he got out in October and moved “out of my home from my ex-wife” before hosting Saturday Night Live on Halloween and then relapsing on drugs.
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“I’m told I took a job here,” he continued, referencing the news that he joined Late Night as a writer late last year. “I continued using drugs. You and some other friends staged an intervention, as you recall. I went to rehab again, this time for two months. I got out in February, I lived in sober living for another month and a half …Then in the spring I went to Los Angeles and met and started to date a beautiful woman named Olivia [Munn].”
And, Mulaney revealed, he and Munn are expecting a baby. “We’re both really, really happy,” he said.
Mulaney said that he met Munn for the first time at Meyers’ wedding and called her “incredible” and said the relationship has been “really beautiful” as he deals with the challenges of being newly sober.
“She’s kind of held my hand through that hell,” he said.
During the three-segment appearance that spanned a little over 18 minutes, both Mulaney and Meyers spoke about the intervention and how he had been struggling before that.
“When I opened the door, I knew it was an intervention. That’s how bad of a drug problem I had,” Mulaney said, revealing that he had been under the assumption he was having dinner with a friend from college in their apartment, then he opened the door and saw Meyers.
“I needed to be the smartest person in the room even at the intervention,” Mulaney recalled. “I remember saying to all of you, ‘Before you all read your letters, I have a drug problem and I need help, just to scoop you.'”
He added that he kept insisting he was sober at the intervention but wasn’t. He later revealed that Fred Armisen and a “We Are the World of alternative comedians over the age of 40” were at the intervention “and no one did bits the entire time.”
Mulaney was also a couple of hours late because he had stopped by the Saturday Night Live studios “very coked up” and asked to get a haircut from the hair and make up department, something Meyers confirmed by calling someone at SNL to check on him.
The pair also revisited photos of Mulaney’s most recent appearances on Late Night, in which he was wearing sunglasses and a coat he got from The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas, which, they said, caused people to speculate that something may have been wrong with him.
“I was not under the influence while delivering [his ‘Royal Watch’ segment],” Mulaney said. “I had been under the influence the day before, and the day after I was probably under the influence … I was more sober than not. A lot of people were saying, ‘Something’s wrong with John Mulaney,’ and I was sitting at home saying, ‘Indeed something is.'”
Meyers, however, regrets that he didn’t see it. “As someone who was spending a lot of time with you, I look back and incredible ignorance about what you were going through,” he said.
At the end of Mulaney’s appearance, they both got serious, with Meyers calling the past year a “real rollercoaster.”
“I’m very happy you’re on the other side of it,” Meyers said. “I’m so happy for you and Olivia. This is very exciting news. I love you very much and I’m glad you’re doing well.”
Mulaney added, “I love you Seth. You guys saved me from drugs and Olivia and this baby have helped save me from myself in this early journey out of recovery … I’m really grateful to you.”
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