Anna Marie Tendler Looks Back at “Harsh and Punishing” Year After Her Ex John Mulaney Welcomes a Baby Boy With Olivia Munn

John Mulaney’s estranged wife Anna Marie Tendler took stock of the difficult year she’s had in a lengthy Instagram post, reflecting on the “unfathomable” loss we’ve all experienced while hoping for a healing year ahead.

“Over the past two years it seems that change has been synonymous with loss and collectively this loss has been unfathomable. It is tempting to construct a poetic list of all we’ve watched slip through our hands, but what’s the point? We already know it and we grieve it daily. Even if we speak of a future when ‘things will go back to normal,’ our cautiously hopeful tones belie reality. Inertia has propelled us forward, there is no going back, there is no ‘back’ to go back to. Normal means something different now,” the artist captioned a self-portrait.

She goes on to say that while she’s become accustomed “with the elusiveness of hope” as someone who lives “with depression and anxiety,” at the same time, “melancholia is oft amplified by circumstance and the circumstances of my year have been harsh and punishing. I find myself asking, ‘when will I feel normal?’ but in reality I recognize that the normal from before has expired; ‘normal’ is an impossibility, there is only ‘new.’” Tendler then offers a few suggestions for how to find respite from the grief and trauma of this year, offering, “We call our friends; we allow ourselves to laugh. We cry in parked cars. We work; we rest. We throw plates just to watch them break; we make things with our hands. We write, we read, we watch movies. We listen to music. We run, or walk, or sprint, or dance. We ask for help or learn to ask for help. We love or learn to love again.” She concluded, “Here’s to all the things we did this year to cope and here’s to all we will do next year to heal. An infinite history of pain and suffering occurred before this time, yet here we all are, surviving and creating and laughing at TikTok videos. So long 2021. For better or worse I will carry a piece of you with me forever.”

One of the big changes Tendler might be referring to in her year-end post is her divorce from comedian Mulaney after six years of marriage. In a statement at the time, released through her spokesperson, the artist said, “I am heartbroken that John has decided to end our marriage. I wish him support and success as he continues his recovery.” One week later, news broke that Mulaney had started dating actress Olivia Munn and less than two months later it was confirmed that Munn was pregnant with her and Mulaney’s first child. The pair welcomed a son in November named Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney amid rumors of their breakup. On Saturday, Munn commemorated the start of 2022 by sharing a photo of the newborn on Instagram, writing “Happy New Year.” The actress shared the first photos of her child on Instagram on Christmas Eve, showing her son in a blue beanie and swaddled in a white blanket, writing, “My Golden Ox baby. Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney. Happy Holidays.”

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