Maria Menounos opens up about her brain tumor, cancer, diabetes diagnosis, and her mission to help others
This journey started in 2016, when her mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer.
Months later, Maria Menounos was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. Then with Type 1 Diabetes. Then with pancreatic cancer. Then she developed liver lesions.
“And infertility. And a couple of other health conditions,” the Medford native, 47, said in a recent phone interview from her Connecticut home.
“If you’ve followed my journey over the last decade, you know it’s been a health journey. But it pushed me into this arena where I’ve had to focus on my health in a way that I never did before.”
The Emmy-winning TV journalist and personality — seen on “Extra,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “E! News” “The Today Show” and more — founded Heal Squad x Maria Menounos, a daily podcast. Menounos calls it a “health and wellness” series and podcast.
Menounos will host a sold-out “Heal Squad Day of Reset” at Red Jacket Beach Resort South Yarmouth on May 16, billed as a one-day “immersive experience designed to help you regulate your nervous system and reset your physical and mental health.”
While the former Emerson College student still keeps her feet in acting — from a cameo in Prime’s “The Boys” (Season 2) to Lifetime’s “Christmas at Plumhill Manor” — her focus is now on her health.
Her Instagram bio says she’s “on a health & wellness journey doing my best to help people on theirs.”And her Website homepage is dedicated to “helping you be the CEO of your health.”
“You need to be the CEO because the [medical] system is overwhelmed,” she said. “It saved my life. It’s incredible. I have incredible doctors, and we need them. But they’re also overwhelmed, and the system is not kind to them, either.”
She knew something felt off, but a colonoscopy, endoscopy, and CT scan were all clean. So she went for a full-body MRI, which found a Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
“I knew something was wrong, and nobody could figure it out. Even with a CT scan, they missed a two-centimeter mass on my pancreas. It was a journey to figure it out,” she says.
She’s been candid about her journey, documenting the highs — talking about the birth of daughter Athena via a surrogate — and lows, such as when her diabetic dad and cancer-battling mother both had COVID while Menounos had a brain tumor, a story she tells in a YouTube Video.
In an interview, we talked about her health, her mission, and her love of Dunkin’.
You said the last 10 years have been a “health journey.” Tell me about your event on Cape Cod.
My podcast, “Heal Squad,” was born out of necessity to help my mom and help myself, and by that same token, help others. Last August, we did our first Heal Squad event at Canyon Ranch [a four-day event in Lenox] and people found it to be valuable.
I thought to myself: I have contacts over the last 30 years — whether I was doing stories about health on “The Today Show” or wherever it was — and was connected to the best of the best. I do have unique access; I know who moves the needle. So let’s do a one-day event [on the Cape] where we can help people reset their nervous systems.
I’ll give them exposure and access to the modalities that have helped me, to the modalities that have helped others, the practitioners that I constantly prescribe to people when they come to me and they have an issue.
[For example] I have a friend who was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, I went into my brain-Rolodex, and I’m like, “Who do I know?” So when you know the right people, you can make an impact on health very quickly.
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This is an event for women.
I think women in general, we often take care of ourselves last. We have so many things on our plates, our nervous systems are so wrecked, we need a break.
You said this health journey started with your mom’s brain cancer. But your dad had diabetes when you were growing up.
Yeah, it’s been a journey forever in a sense. My dad was Type 1 diabetic, with the language barrier, which made it very challenging. He’d have low-blood sugar attacks all the time. Then my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016, and then I was diagnosed a few months later in 2017 with a benign brain tumor called meningioma.
And the brain tumors weren’t due to anything genetic?
No. They said it was like lightning striking [twice].
How did you get through that period of your life?
I’m not going to say it’s easy. The brain tumor — at that time, I was going against my grain. We get caught up in old dreams. We get caught up in a version of success that’s maybe not authentic to who we are, and is maybe more authentic to what Instagram is sending us. I was tired. I was like, “Well, if this is it, it’s been great. I’m out.” I was so tired of that life.
And what I realized is this was an invitation to my true life, to my true calling, and to a higher purpose and passion, and that’s what this [journey] has become.
I’m grateful for all the disappointments up until then, things that didn’t work out. Even today, I was just walking on the beach saying, “Thank God those things never happened, or I’d be trapped in a life I didn’t want.”
You were also diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
Yeah, that was after the brain tumor. I have Hashimoto’s [an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid gland] — there’s so many other things — but diabetes was the first thing after the tumor. Then pancreas cancer.
The pancreas cancer was terrifying. I had a baby on the way via surrogate. I didn’t know if I was going to get to meet her. Luckily, God gave me a second chance. And a third chance, and probably more chances.
You say traveling helps you?
I’d been diving deep into the health benefits of the equator. I think sunlight is really important. I think grounding and circadian rhythm is really important.
My husband [Keven Undergaro] will bring me back to earth sometimes, because I can float away with these concepts and ideas, because I’m trying everything. I’m experimenting. He’s like, “Maria, all the green juice in the world isn’t going to heal you.”
True.
He’s like, “You’ve got to fix what’s inside.” And he’s right. You’ve got to fix what’s inside. We’re complicated machines. All you can do is try, and when you know better, like Maya Angelou said, you do better.
So overall, what’s your goal with “Health Squad”?
My goal is to keep sounding the alarm to everyone that they need to be the CEO of their health. Your health has to be your responsibility — not just with everyday choices, but with the overall management.
You’re spending more time in New England now, splitting time between homes in Connecticut and LA.
Coming back home to my roots has been really beautiful. I’m a Massachusetts girl, always. I love that Athena gets to be with family. I’ve really fallen in love with New England all over again. January through April is brutal, and I probably won’t partake in those months. … But otherwise, I’m in love.
I read you used to work at Dunkin’?
Six years. Loved it. Still do. I was just in the Medfid Dunkin’ Donuts the other day, and [a sign] said, “Medford runs on Dunkin.” I was like, “Yes, we do!”
Lauren Daley can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1.
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