Maria Menounos Finally Gets The Happy Ending To Her Family Journey We've Been Rooting For
Maria Menounos and her husband Keven Undergaro have been having an uphill fertility journey for the last few years. After Menounos's 2018 surgery to remove a benign brain tumor, the couple has been looking to start a family via surrogacy. In 2021, the former "Extra" host announced on "Better Together" that she and Undergaro were preparing to have multiple babies that year. According to Menounos, she and her husband, who is the CEO of AfterBuzz TV, were already considering uprooting their life in Los Angeles to move to Nashville. "Well, we're gonna have kids this year," she said at the time. "We're like, 'Where do we want to raise a family?' And it's not necessarily here."
The entertainment reporter shared sad news during a December 2021 interview with Today Parents. "Every psychic says, 'You're having twins,'" Menounos said frustratedly. "And I'm like, 'I'm having nothing. Nothing is working.'" After multiple failed attempts to impregnate their "amazing surrogate," the couple was informed by their fertility doctor that "it was never going to work." While voicing her conviction that "it's going to happen at that right time," Menounos told Today Parents that she couldn't help but experience self-doubt sometimes. "You start to think, 'Am I too old? Am I too tired? Is this a sign?" she said at the time.
The right time has apparently come, as Menounos and Undergaro just shared some joyous family news.
Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro are finally parents-to-be!
A first triumph in their fertility journey, Maria Menounos and her husband Keven Undergaro finally have a baby on the way! A spokesperson for the couple confirmed the news to People on February 7 they were expecting their first child. A celebratory Menounos also told the outlet, "Just after a decade of trying everything, we are so grateful to the beautiful family helping us conceive our baby," adding that her father, Constantinos, was also "beyond excited for this soul to come into our lives." In a heartwarming clip shared with People, Maria and Constantinos are shown watching a video of her baby's ultrasound. "Oh my God," the 44-year-old expectant mother says. "Guys, that's my baby. I love you."
In 2021 — the same year Maria was told her surrogate was no longer a match medically — the actor also suffered other devastating losses. Keeping her chin up and a Zen attitude, Maria told Today Parents at the time that it was "God protecting us." In addition to her mother, Litsa Menounos, dying from stage-4 brain cancer, she also mourned the death of her dog in 2021. In retrospect, Maria saw it all as a blessing in disguise. "Trying to have kids in the midst of that would have been a lot," she said.