A woman who left her husband and slept with 200 men after she was diagnosed with cancer has opened up about why she did it, and how he reacted.
Molly Kochan from California turned her devastating diagnosis into an unexpected journey of self-discovery — breaking free from her marriage and embracing a wild and unapologetic sexual adventure that ultimately inspired a hit podcast and FX series, per the Daily Mail.
Her story is now the subject of Dying for Sex, with Michelle Williams playing Molly and Jenny Slate as her best friend, Nikki Boyer — the confidante who helped her share every twist, turn, and Tinder hookup along the way.
Molly first felt a lump in her breast back in 2005, but doctors dismissed her concerns, telling her she was “too young” for cancer.
Six years later, she was finally diagnosed with breast cancer and began treatment. By 2015, the cancer had spread. The diagnosis was terminal.
Faced with the reality of limited time, Molly made a radical life pivot — and left her husband.
She also made a decision to have as much sex as she wanted, with whomever she wanted, and whenever she wanted.
Molly Kochan. Credit: Facebook
Molly’s hormone treatment — which usually lowers libido — had the opposite effect on her. “I wanted to hump everything and everyone,” she admitted.
She opened up about the transformation on her and Nikki’s Dying for Sex podcast, revealing: “I was horny all of the time.”
But her marriage wasn’t keeping up.
“For a long time with sex — and this is why I had a problem in my marriage — I was really, really, really good at figuring out what other people liked and then I could simulate that like an actor for them,” Molly explained. “But I never really knew what I liked.”
Her sex life with her husband had flatlined — but Molly didn’t hold it against him.
“I don’t blame him,” she said.
Instead, she took to the internet, diving headfirst into a new world of online flirtations, hookups, and romantic experiments.
When she told her husband what she planned to do, his response was surprisingly chill.
“Good for you,” he said.
Molly Kochan. Credit: Facebook
Molly went on to sleep with around 200 men, chasing pleasure, connection, and — above all — joy.
One particularly memorable moment was when a man who asked her to kick him in the balls.
“It was like an amusement park built for me with one ride, and that was the ride, and there was no line, so I’m going to do it again and again,” she said.
Molly passed away in March 2019, but not before leaving a legacy through her six-part podcast with Nikki Boyer — which has since been streamed over five million times — and a memoir titled Screw Cancer: Becoming Whole.
For Molly, every encounter wasn’t just a physical act — it was a statement.
As Nikki put it: “Sex felt like the antithesis to death.” It was, she said, “a great distraction from being sick.”
