Maria Menounos Calls Daughter Athena, 2, Her 'North Star' as She Opens Up About Her Priorities as a Mom (Exclusive) Yamillah HurtadoOctober 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM 0 Maria Menounos/Instagram Maria Menounos with her daughter Athena Maria Menounos' daughter Athena, 2, is "everything" to the podcast host Menounos tells PEOPLE motherhood is "the greatest time of my life" Athena, born in June 2023, is the first child of Menounos and husband Keven Undergaro Maria Menounos loves her role as a mom.
- - Maria Menounos Calls Daughter Athena, 2, Her 'North Star' as She Opens Up About Her Priorities as a Mom (Exclusive)
Yamillah HurtadoOctober 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM
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Maria Menounos/Instagram
Maria Menounos with her daughter Athena -
Maria Menounos' daughter Athena, 2, is "everything" to the podcast host
Menounos tells PEOPLE motherhood is "the greatest time of my life"
Athena, born in June 2023, is the first child of Menounos and husband Keven Undergaro
Maria Menounos loves her role as a mom.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE, the Heal Squad podcast host, 47, opened up about motherhood and raved over her 2-year-old daughter Athena.
"She's everything," Menounos tells PEOPLE exclusively. "It's the greatest time of my life."
"It's the most magical experience I would've never known. I'm so grateful that I was blessed to have this healthy, beautiful, smart, adorable, funny little Athena."
Menounos tells PEOPLE that Athena already has a big personality and speaks three languages.
"She's super funny," Menounos exclaims. "This morning at breakfast, I caught her on video, and she was oscillating between Spanish, Greek and English songs … She's giving it all this attitude. She's a little actress."
Keven Undergaro/Instagram
Kevin Undergaro and Maria Menounos with daughter Athena
Menounos and husband Keven Undergaro welcomed Athena, their first child, in June 2023 via surrogate. When asked what she's learned from motherhood, Menounos notes, "I've learned that it does go by quickly."
"I'm grateful that I'm getting to enjoy all the moments and that I'm present with her," she says. "It's just more amazing than I ever could have imagined."
Menounos adds, "Listen, we're going to make mistakes along the way. We're not going to be perfect. We're going to do our best."
The former E! News correspondent says motherhood shifted her priorities completely. "She's my priority," Menounos says. "If she wants to play, I'm dropping everything and I'm playing with her. I very much will generally, most of the time, drop everything just to be with her and play with her and enjoy her."
"My health is also my priority because I want to be here for her," Menounos explains. "Every single day, I'm doing all the things I have to do to live a strong, healthy life so I can be here with her. So she has me."
"She's my north star to do all the things that I'm doing," Menounos adds.
Maria Menounos/Instagram
Maria Menounos and her daughter Athena
While awaiting the arrival of her baby girl, Menounos was diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer. In January 2023, after experiencing excruciating abdominal pain, undergoing various medical exams and a full-body MRI scan, Menounos learned she had a 3.9-centimeter tumor growing on her pancreas.
Despite an abundance of negative test results, Menounos listened to her body and continued to search for an answer. Menounos says her persistence saved her life. She caught the cancer in time and underwent surgery to remove the tumor in February 2023. Menounos has since been cancer-free.
"I was doing all the tests and they kept coming back negative," Menounos says. "Luckily, I did push and got another test … I'm grateful to be alive today because if I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't be here."
She continued, "We've got to be the CEO of our own health journeys and really make sure that we are thinking about everything."
Menounos is a spokesperson for the cancer screening test, The Cancerguard Test. Cancerguard is a single blood test that can detect cancer before symptoms appear. According to Cancergaurd, 70% of cancer deaths occur in cancers without screening options.
"It's something that I am constantly screaming from the rooftops about because if it wasn't for outside screening, I wouldn't be here today," Menounos says.
Exact Sciences
Cancerguard Kit
"There are incredibly innovative tests, like Cancerguard, out there that can help you stack the deck in your favor and catch something before it's too late and while you can still do something about it."
"Your health matters, and you have to take it into high regard. We make our careers so important and our work and our achievements, but your health is just as important, if not more," Menounos adds. "You have to focus on it. You can't leave that up to anybody else."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: October 27, 2025 at 02:36PM on Source: AMAG
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