Anna Marie Tendler Suffered A 'Severe Mental Health Breakdown' Before John Mulaney Divorce

Artist Anna Marie Tendler was hospitalized prior to her divorce from comedian John Mulaney due to a "severe mental health breakdown."

Mulaney filed for divorce in May 2021 after spending several weeks in rehab. Only a week later, he revealed that he was dating actress Olivia Munn, and the new couple welcomed their first child together in December 2021.

In an essay published on Wednesday for Elle called "Saying Goodbye To Petunia," the artist described the mental health breakdown that she suffered prior to her divorce.

While Mulaney was in rehab, Tendler revealed that she and her late French bulldog, Petunia, moved to Connecticut in December 2020 "in the wake of my severe mental health breakdown and what appeared to be the impending end of my marriage."

"My mental health hinged wholly on my dog. When I was hospitalized for depression, self-harm, and severe suicidal ideation in the first two weeks of 2021, the doctors asked me to make a list of my reasons for living," she explained. "Petunia was the one and only thing on that list."

After detailing Petunia's long list of medical conditions, Tendler admitted that "Petunia’s life only lasted as long as it did because I was in an incredibly privileged financial situation." However, as Petunia's heart problems worsened, she inevitably had to be put down.

"She took her last breaths while cradled in my arms. Even after life had left her body, I sat with her, held her, and continued to talk to her," Tendler wrote. "I told her how much I love her. I told her how grateful I was for her love and companionship."

She wrapped up her essay, writing, "I promised her that I was okay and that I would be okay without her; crushed, lonely, but okay. I thanked her for staying with me—for guarding me—until I was strong enough to survive without her."

As The Blast previously reported, Anna Marie Tendler started the process of freezing her eggs after the couple finalized their divorce in January 2022. The former couple first tied the knot in 2014 and had no children together.

In an Instagram post announcing her gallery opening in January, Tendler shared an artist statement on motherhood that shed more light on her decision to freeze her eggs.

“The concept of Motherhood is so ingrained in us that even when it is something we do not want we fail to trust our gut desire. I do not particularly want children, yet at thirty-six I froze my eggs for fear I might change my mind,” she wrote.

"At first glance, my two works may appear to tell the story of a woman longing for motherhood, but I urge the viewer to consider the patriarchal conditioning that leads to this interpretation," she continued. "Why does a woman clad in black and positioned in a room of empty twin beds signal loss? Why are we quick to assume she is sad?"

"Perhaps she is Lilith, first wife of Adam, who in re-fusing to submit to her husband, left the Garden of Eden to become the figure of primal rage, stealing men's sperm and devouring their babies in the dark of the night," she speculated.

Although the former couple never had a child together, Mulaney welcomed a son with actress Olivia Munn a month before the divorce was finalized.

At the time, Tendler said it was "surreal" to watch her ex-husband have a child with another woman before they were officially divorced, in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

“I had a lot of bad days and medium days,” she continued. “I wouldn’t say I had any good days until the summer.”

“Everything that has transpired has been totally shocking and I think surreal,” she continued. “In a way, I feel like, well, it can only go up from here, because I reached the depth of where I could go.”

“There were things I never even thought about before because that was just a closed door,” she explained. “So now that it feels like not as much of a closed door, it’s something that I ruminate on a lot.”

She added that she “always [held] partnership above having kids,” saying, “I feel lucky that I get to be standing on the precipice of all of these new things, that I get to possibly experience, and who knows how they will go? And there is certainly something exciting about that.”