Olivia Munn was "not afraid of death" when she was diagnosed with cancer

She told this week's edition of People: "I was not someone who obsessed over death or was afraid of it in any way but having a little baby at home made everything much more terrifying."

Olivia's diagnosis resulted in four surgeries, a double mastectomy, and medically induced menopause, but she insisted that keeping the news away from her fans meant she could battle the disease without any "noise" and could recover in peace.

She wrote on Instagram: "Keeping it private for as long as I did allowed me time to fight without any outside noise at all."

Followng her double mastectomy, the former 'Newsroom' star underwent reconstruction surgery and opted to "go smaller" than she had been before as she insisted that it was "so important" for other women to say exactly what they want under such circumstances.

She said: "I know a lot of women want to go bigger, but [I said] go smaller. It's so important to say what you want out loud-and don't stop. Even as the anesthesia was making its way into my body, the last thing I said was 'Please go smaller!'"

Olivia previously explained that she had been for her usual mammogram and her cancer would have gone unnoticed until her next routine appointment but her doctor decided to do a simple risk assessment test based on factors such as her age, medical history and the fact that she had her first child over the age of 30.

After finding that Olivia held an almost 40 percent chance of developing cancer within her lifetime, she went for an MRI which led to further tests confirming the disease.

She said: "I wouldn't have found my cancer for another year at my next scheduled mammogram - except that my OBGYN, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, decided to calculate my Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. The fact that she did saved my life."