Maria Menounos opened up about her recent brain surgery in a tearful interview on “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.”
The 39-year-old E! personality and Medford native had a tumor removed on her birthday in June, which was discovered on the heels of her mother’s battle with stage IV brain cancer. Menounos is trying to stay positive over the situation and called the diagnosis a “gift” that’s prompting some much needed life changes.
“I think that this was a gift because I needed to change my life,” Menounos told Kelly. “I needed to change the way I did everything.”
Prior to receiving the news about her brain tumor, Menounos revealed that she prayed for someway to take on her mother’s fight.
“I was getting really frustrated because she wasn’t fighting and she was doing worse,” Menounos said. “I just remember praying and just saying, ‘God, I wish you gave this to me because I have the fight, and I have the will to beat this stuff. She doesn’t.'”
She added, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Shortly after her mother’s surgery, Menounos began suffering from headaches and started having trouble with her vision while reading teleprompters at work. Her symptoms started to mirror her mother’s, which prompted a visit to the doctor.
“He said, ‘I’m so sorry I have to tell you this because I know that you’re going through a lot with your mom, but you have a brain tumor,'” Menounos said. “‘You need to schedule an appointment with a neurosurgeon right away.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ I started kind of chuckling because at that point it’s like, ‘This is a joke. How does this happen?'”
Luckily, Menounos’ condition is noncancerous and she seems to be recovering well following her surgery in June. However, the actress and TV host is still very worried about her mother’s battle with cancer.
“I just hope that we can make her one of the longterm survivors because I’m worried about her,” Menounos said while fighting back tears. “That’s all I want. Nobody ever wants to lose their mom.”
