Maria Menounos tells how her friend shamed her into surrogacy
Maria Menounas.
(Photo by Arai Doheny/Getty Images)Maria Menounas talks about the time her friends were embarrassed by her decision to have a baby through a surrogate mother.
“They were friends. One of them worked for me for a while,” Menounos, 46, shared on Monday, Jan. 13, of the episode “Women in the nude” podcast.
“He’s the one who was, like, so sweet, and I, like, loved him,” she explained to the host Sasha Peters. “She said to my husband, ‘What do you mean she can’t carry? Like, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“And he says, ‘Her neurosurgeon — the best neurosurgeon in the world — said she can’t take it.’ And she said, “I just don’t understand. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Maria Menounos will never forget what it was like to hold her baby girl for the first time. “It was the most special moment of my life,” the 45-year-old star, who gave birth to daughter Athena Alexandra via surrogate on June 23 with her husband Keven Undergar, exclusively recalls in the new issue of Us Weekly. “(…)
After this exchange, Menounas broke off her relationship with her friend.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I never want to talk to you again,'” she recalled. “It’s one thing to be judged by outsiders who don’t know and don’t understand. But you actually know me and you know what we’ve been through. It’s just crazy to me that you would even say something so damning.’
Menounas and husband Keven Undergara in June 2023, they gave birth to their daughter Athena Aleksandra through a surrogate mother.
Ex And! News anchor faced infertility issues that led to IVF treatment, which was stopped when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2017. The tumor was removed and she was given a clean bill of health, but her neurosurgeon advised her not to have a baby.
Before giving birth to their first child, Maria Menounas and husband Keven Undergara formed an unbreakable bond with their surrogate mother. The couple spoke exclusively about their journey to parenthood in the new issue of Us Weekly , detailing the “pure joy” they felt following the arrival of daughter Athena Alexandra in June. “It was the most special moment (…)
When Menounos and Undergar’s first surrogate failed in 2020, Menounos almost gave up hope — then she happily announced in February 2023 that they had found another and were expecting a baby.
“Athena is our miracle child,” said the host of the Heal Squad podcast. us after the birth of her daughter. “I’m so thankful for her.”
Menunas extended Athena’s influence on her life to interview with us last November, saying: “It was the greatest gift. I think the first thing I felt after she was born was that I finally understood my place. And it was a really incredible feeling. I no longer felt like I was chasing something. And she’s just a witch. And I’m just loving every second of it. She just brought so much joy to all of us and I’m so grateful.”
As for whether she sees more children in their future, Menounas said us that “it would be a dream”.
“We have already discussed what we want. The second she was born, I’m like, ‘I want more, I need more,'” she said. “And then we said, ‘Well, let’s wait ’til she’s old enough to make the transition feel good.’ Thus, she feels no loss; she feels she has a benefit and that she has a new role. So that’s what we’re thinking about.”
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