Maria Menounos gave birth to her first child via surrogate with husband Keven Undergaro
- Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro have welcomed their first child a baby girl named Athena Alexandra.
- The baby arrived via surrogate last month on June 23 after a long fertility issue.
- Maria was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer earlier this year.
Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro are officially a parent
A family of three! Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro have expanded their family.
The journalist, 45, and her husband, 55, have welcomed their first child a baby girl named Athena Alexandra via surrogate.
Maria gave birth to her little princess on June 23 after a decade of fertility struggles and a pancreatic cancer battle. On Wednesday, July 19, the new mom exclusively told Us Weekly,
“It was the most special moment of my life. The doctor literally grabbed her and hiked her onto me. I sat with her on my chest, and Keven and I kept looking at each other like, ‘Oh, my God.’ It was just pure joy.”
While speaking to PEOPLE Maria Menounos showed gratitude towards the surrogacy mother for gifting a bundle of joy to their family. She told the outlet,
“Just after a decade of trying everything, we are so grateful to the beautiful family helping us conceive our baby. Keven, my dad and I are all beyond excited for thissoul to come into our lives. What a blessing.”
The baby’s arrival news comes just three months after the pair revealed the sex of their baby after announcing the pregnancy news in February.
Maria Menounos: Fertility struggles, Health issue
Maria Menounos and Keven faced a lot of struggles to conceive for a decade. The TV host has always been open about her long fertility journey.
In February, Menounos talked about her fertility journey during her appearance on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” where she showed gratitude towards Zoe Saldana and Kim Kardashian for helping her in her surrogacy journey.
Menounos told at the time,
“They both gave me their advice and people. Kim especially gave me this wonderful lawyer named Andy, he found me this woman Stephanie, who helped me find our surrogate,”
“We’re just so so grateful because these people really help you bring life forward and without them we wouldn’t be able to do this. Our surrogate and her family are literal angels, I’m so grateful that we’re going to have this extended family that our baby will be part of and we’re just so grateful to everybody that’s helped us along the way.”
Besides, Maria was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer earlier this year. She had undergone surgery to remove a 3.9-inch tumor along with part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid, and 17 lymph nodes.
In May, she spoke about her health issue to PEOPLE, revealing,
“This whole year has been trauma, stress, crisis. I had that moment where I thought I was a goner—but I’m okay because I caught this early enough.”
Prior to having pancreatic cancer, she had a benign brain tumor removed in 2017. She continued,
“I’m like ‘How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?’ All I could think was that I have a baby coming.”
However, she is grateful to her husband and father, Constantinos Menounos for being on her side every time. She said,
“I’m so grateful and so lucky. 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.”