Weeks after undergoing brain tumor surgery, Maria Menounos was spotted walking arm-in-arm with her fiancé, Keven Undergaro, in Beverly Hills on Friday, August 4. Wearing ripped jeans, a black crop top and neon yellow flats, the former E! host looked tan and toned while smiling on their stroll.
Menounos, 39, revealed in July that she discovered her brain tumor at the same time her mother, Litsa Menounos, was fighting stage 4 brain cancer. Her doctor was able to remove 99.9% of the tumor, which was benign, after a seven-hour surgery.
The TV personality spoke out about the ordeal in an interview on the Today show and said the health crisis was “a huge blessing and a huge gift” because it pushed her to change her life.
The One Tree Hill alum posted an inspiring video of herself recovering after the surgery on Instagram on July 6. “Anyone who knows me well knows that @officialslystallone Rocky movies mean so much to me. This quote has gotten me through my darkest hours. This video was taken just after I got out of 7.5 hours of brain surgery. I couldn’t see bc the nerves dr black worked around got a little affected so just out of surgery my eyes were flickering and everyone was crying and this was my response. Truly it ain’t about how hard you hit…,” she wrote.
She went on to share the entire quote from Rocky Balboa. “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Menounos decided to step down from her E! News position following the health scare.
The ordeal has made her realize that she wants to start a family, telling Today in the emotional interview, “You realize really quickly when something like this happens that nothing else really matters.”
“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,” she continued. “And so I think that that was a really important lesson.”
