This past year has been a series of shocking news for former E! News correspondent Maria Menounos. The host of the “Heal Squad” podcast revealed to PEOPLE that she was not only diagnosed with diabetes in 2022, but she also found out she and her husband, Keven Undergaro, will be having a baby via surrogate later this summer.

Bad news. Good news. Then, there was more bad news, the kind of bad news that made the 44 year old wonder if she would even get to meet her unborn baby.

In November, she started experiencing horrible pain in her abdomen. It was so bad that said it felt “like someone was tearing my insides out.” She went to the doctor for a CT scan, but it came back normal. That didn’t make her feel any better. She knew something was wrong.

She went to an MRI company called Prenuvo, and this time there was an answer. She was diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer.

Thankfully, since the cancer was caught fairly early, she had hope. She was diagnosed in January, and in February, she had surgery to remove the cancerous tumor as well as her pancreas, her spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a large fibroid.

At this point, it looks like the surgery was a huge success, and she will need chemotherapy. Now, she finally gets to relax and prepare for her new baby. She said, “God granted me a miracle. I’m going to appreciate having her in my life so much more than I would have before this journey.”

Besides the story in PEOPLE, Menounus also shared part of her story on Instagram. She added that she plans to share even more on her podcast.

 

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Menounos credits the MRI from Prenuvo for helping catch the cancer early, and she credits her doctor, UCLA’s Dr. Ryan Aronin, and her surgeon, UCLA’s Dr. Timothy Donahue, for saving her life.