Maria Menounos believes the pressure of working in the entertainment industry has negatively impacted her health.
“I think the chronic stress on the body is really bad,” the veteran TV host said in an interview with Access Hollywood’s Natalie Morales and Kit Hoover on Thursday, December 14, where she detailed the challenges that came with her career.
“I think the industry, I think that there’s a lot of bullying, a lot of toxicity. I think it’s just a rough journey,” she added. “You know, there’s the glitz and the glam that everybody sees — and yes, I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of it — but there have been some tough times and I’m sure you guys have not been immune to those tough times.”
The TV personality, 39, also mentioned that she questioned herself prior to her diagnosis. “I mean, as women, you know, we put ourselves last, we put our health last,” she said on Thursday. “I postponed that MRI for months because I thought I was crazy, I thought I was being paranoid and I was putting my mom’s health first, which I mean is understandable — it was critical — but we have to focus more on ourselves.”
As previously reported, Menounos, whose career spans two decades, underwent surgery in June to remove a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor after being diagnosed in May.
In August, she told Us Weekly, “What this has done is shift my focus into more of like a mind, body, spiritual kind of grounding that needs to happen.” She added, “I think this has convinced me to give myself more time, mentally, to breathe.” Her mother, Litsa Menounos, is currently battling stage 4 brain cancer.
