Maria Menounos is on the road to recovery after having surgery to remove a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor.
The 39-year-old underwent the surgery while her mother, Litsa Menounos, battled stage 4 brain cancer.
The E! News coanchor confirmed the news to People Magazine.
“This February I thought I had an ear infection, so I went to a doctor, and he said, ‘Your ears are the cleanest things I’ve ever seen. What else are you feeling?’ I’d been getting light-headed on-set and having headaches.”
“My speech had gotten slurred, and I was having difficulty reading the teleprompter. I said, ‘I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I think I have a brain tumor like my mom,’” Maria continued.
“He said, ‘I don’t think you’re crazy. Let’s just get an MRI.’ The next week I started feeling better, so I was like, ‘I’m clearly paranoid.’ So I kept pushing the MRI.”
Fast forward three months and the tumor has been removed. The tumor was revealed not to be cancerous, and her prognosis is hopeful.
Maria has decided to give up her role within E! News to recover and allow herself to think about the next chapter of her life.
“I am so grateful for the past three years at E!, I had such an amazing time co-hosting with Jason Kennedy and working everyday with the wonderful roster of talent on the show including producers, staff, and crew,” Maria said in a statement.
“It was such a special, good-hearted group and one I’ll always consider family. A special thank you to Frances Berwick and Adam Stotsky for all the support they have shown me through the years especially during these tough times. I will truly miss everyone and looking forward to this next chapter in my life.”
In addition to speaking to People, Maria opened up about her experience on The Today Show.
“For me, I saw it as a huge blessing and a huge gift because I needed to change my life,” she said, trying to hold back the tears.
“We’re caretakers as women, and we help everybody, and we put ourselves last always. And I don’t think — at least for me — I guess I realized I didn’t value myself in a lot of ways. And so I think that that was a really important lesson.”
Maria also opened up about her intentions to start a family in the wake of the ordeal.
“I want to start a family,” she added on Today. “You realize really quickly when something like this happens that nothing else really matters.”
We at The Hollywood Gossip wish Maria a speedy recovery.
