The TV presenter has recalled the ‘excruciating’ pain she suffered (Picture: John Shearer/Getty Images)
TV host Maria Menounos has opened up about her recent cancer diagnosis, recalling her shock over finding out the news while also expecting a baby girl.
In a new interview, the 44-year-old has revealed that she was recently diagnosed with stage two pancreatic cancer after a tumour was found, resulting in her having to undergo surgery.
Maria is best-known for her work on TV in the US, having worked for outlets including E! News, Extra and Access Hollywood, in addition to co-hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens in 2006.
On Wednesday May 3, she informed her 1million Instagram followers that she had some personal information to share with them, after keeping her ordeal over the past few months under wraps.
After suffering ‘excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhoea’, Maria underwent a CT scan and various tests, which didn’t show any abnormal results, she told People.
However, having suffered pain that felt like ‘someone was tearing my insides out’ while on a flight shortly afterwards, Maria had a full-body MRI scan, which unearthed a mass on her pancreas measuring at 3.9cm.
Maria and her husband Keven have been married since 2017 (Picture: JB Lacroix/WireImage)
A biopsy confirmed in January this year that it was a stage-two pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.
All of this was happening while she was expecting a baby girl with her husband Keven Undergaro, who is being born via surrogate this summer.
Not long ago in 2017, Maria was also treated for a brain tumour, which turned out to be benign.
Maria has crossed paths with numerous celebrities in her line of work, including Michelle Pfeiffer (Picture: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Pink Party)
‘I’m like, “How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumour and pancreatic cancer?”’ she said. ‘All I could think was that I have a baby coming.’
On February 16, Maria had surgery to remove the tumour, as well as part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid and 17 lymph nodes, all of which was ‘super painful’ for her.
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In a post shared on Instagram, the TV presenter expressed her thanks to the doctors and nurses who treated her, adding that she still hasn’t ‘come to grips’ with what she’s been through, ‘including the fact that so very few even survive pancreatic cancer’.
‘For now I’ll say how grateful I am to be alive and well and that I WILL get to hold my baby!’ she added.
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The TV presenter has recalled the ‘excruciating’ pain she suffered.