Maria Menounos opens up about battling stage 2 pancreatic cancer while simultaneously anticipating the birth of her first child via surrogate.
In January, Menounos revealed her diagnosis and eventually underwent surgery to remove a 3.9 cm tumor from her pancreas, along with her spleen, a fibroid and 17 lymph nodes.
Fortunately, the star’s cancer was caught early enough to prevent her from undergoing further treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation.
She said PEOPLE that the health scare drove her to despair and that she initially feared she wouldn’t live long enough to meet her infant daughter.
“If you are met with a [potential] death sentence changes everything,” she explained.
When Menounos learned of her diagnosis, she said she began to prepare for the worst.
Cancer free: Maria Menounos talks about her battle with stage 2 pancreatic cancer while anticipating the birth of her first child via a surrogate mother
It had also come just before she and husband Keven Undergaro planned to reveal their pregnancy news.
Undergaro helped Menounos through her first bout of cancer in 2017 after doctors discovered a benign brain tumor, which was later removed.
But when she went around, she admitted that they were both “really scared” of the outcome.
“I thought, ‘How can God finally bless me with a baby and then take me away before I can meet her?
Menounos, 44, announced in February that she and her husband were expecting their first child through a surrogate mother.
“We are so overwhelmed with all the messages of love and joy we have received in the past 24 hours. It’s been a long process, with many ups and downs along the way,” she wrote in part in an Instagram post on Feb. 8, alongside a photo showing the excited parents holding up a baby onesie and a sign that read : ‘We’re having a baby!’
Following the heartbreaking health news, the journalist, TV presenter and actress said she sat down with her husband and began listing the wishes she had for her child if she wasn’t there to make them happen.
The Massachusetts native admitted that she and Undergaro had “discussed everything” and “thought the worst,” telling him, “If anything happens, here are the people I want her around and what I wants you to do. have to move back east to be with my dad so she has him.
While devastated by the news of her cancer diagnosis, Menounos claims she stopped asking “Why me?”
She then recalled the time when her late mother was ill following a brain cancer diagnosis and indeed her father asked the same question.
My dad would say “why us?” And I’d go “Daddy, why not us?” she said of her mother’s illness that eventually led to her passing in 2021. “I’m not saying ‘Why me? because I know it’s ‘Why everyone?'” she added.
Trip: The longtime entertainment news journalist said she and husband Keven Undergaro were “really scared” at first, but three months after surgery, she has a clean bill of health
Though she was devastated by the news of her cancer diagnosis, Menounos claims she stopped asking, “Why me?” that was a question her father asked when her late mother was ill after being diagnosed with brain cancer
Heartbreaking: Menounos lost her mother to brain cancer in 2021
But in the wake of all her fears and ultimate despair, Menounos has replaced those thoughts and feelings with a healthy dose of gratitude in having a clean bill of health since surgery.
And in those three months, Menounos has found the strength to integrate her meditation practice with all the new things she’s learned from working with her Heal Squad podcast.
Plus, she’s added some new healing habits to her routine so she can maintain a healthy body, mind, and spirit through motherhood and beyond.
“I talk to my pancreas every day, I talk to all my body organs and say, ‘I really love you.’ Thanks for arranging everything,” she said of one of her new techniques.
Expecting: Menounos and Undergaro announced in February that they are expecting their first child through a surrogate mother
Heal Squad Lessons: Menounos says she has incorporated some of the lessons she learned on her Heal Squad podcast into her meditation practice to maintain a healthy mind, body and soul in motherhood and beyond
The former Access Hollywood correspondent and co-host also enjoys talking to her unborn child by sending voice recordings to her surrogate, which she in turn plays at her midsection.
“I talk to her all the time. She kicks and moves like crazy every time,” she said of the other new exercise in her life, adding, “I’m looking forward to that whole other chapter. I’m excited.’
As part of her recovery, Menounos will need to continue to have regular scans of her pancreas for the next five years.
The couple’s daughter, via the surrogate, is expected to come into their lives this summer.