Maria Menounos and her husband Keven Undergaro are expecting their first child after battling infertility for years.
“We are so grateful to the beautiful family for helping us conceive our baby after a decade of trying everything,” Menounos, 44, told People on Feb. 7. “Keven, my father, and I are all beyond thrilled for this soul to enter our lives. “What a gift.”
In 2021, the entertainment reporter discussed the surrogacy process with TODAY.com. She was feeling frustrated at the time.
“Every psychic tells you that you’re having twins,” Menounos said. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not having anything. ‘Nothing works.'”
“We had an amazing surrogate who we adored,” she went on. “However, our fertility doctor told us it would never work. We tried and tried and tried again.”
Menounos said the failed attempts were emotionally draining for both her and Undergaro, 55.
Maria Menounos
“You begin to wonder, ‘Am I too old? Is it possible that I’m overtired? Is this a foreshadowing? “Is it a message that we’re not supposed to have children?” she wondered.
Litsa Menounos, her mother, died in May 2021 after a long battle with stage 4 brain cancer.
“I lost my mother, we lost our dog, and then we lost the surrogate,” she explained at the time. “Having children in the midst of that would have been difficult. As a result, we believe that God is protecting us. And it will happen at the right time.”
Menounos documented her failed IVF treatments in a series of heartbreaking Snapchats in 2016. After the former E! host was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour a year later, the couple decided to postpone IVF.
“We definitely want children,” Undergaro said in an interview with People in 2018. “But I’m very concerned about her going through a pregnancy, and I would like to explore (using a) surrogate because her body has been through hell. I desperately want a baby, but I don’t want it to jeopardise her health.”