By their mid-40s, most individuals have both hit their stride or are trying to find what’s subsequent. However, at 47, Maria Menounos has already blazed by means of a number of iterations. Identified first to hundreds of thousands because the sunny correspondent delivering movie star information from purple carpets throughout Hollywood, Menounos has remodeled herself into one thing a lot bigger: a self-made drive in leisure, a wellness advocate, a manufacturing trailblazer and, maybe most significantly, a voice of resilience.
Her journey is a grasp class in learn how to evolve a profession, a model and a life—all whereas going through private trials that would simply have derailed all of it.
At the moment, she doesn’t simply host exhibits—she hosts change, braveness and connection.
Heal Squad x Maria Menounos is a digital life enchancment present targeted on therapeutic, development and well-being, with Macy’s as its title sponsor.
Small-town begin, big-time breakthrough
Born in Medford, Massachusetts, to Greek immigrant mother and father, Menounos confirmed early indicators of grit and ambition. After learning communications at Emerson School, she received her begin at Channel One Information, the place she reduce her tooth reporting on international points just like the 2001 El Salvador earthquake and interviewing President George W. Bush. Nevertheless it was her pivot to leisure journalism that made her a family title.
“Profession-wise…, I really feel like all the pieces shapes you. All the things you do helps you develop, helps you study, helps you evolve,” Menounos says. “[My] starting at Channel One Information helped form loads as a result of it was my first time engaged on digital camera, and I used to be doing actually cool stuff.… It positively gave me an unimaginable quantity of confidence after I moved into mainstream media, with the ability to do this at such a younger age.”
She rose to prominence on Leisure Tonight, Entry Hollywood and later, Additional—the place she, alongside along with her group, earned a Daytime Emmy for Excellent Leisure Information Program. Her success got here not from any single function however by means of her capacity to shape-shift throughout all of them. As a correspondent, Menounos liked telling folks’s tales and feeling like she was making a optimistic impression on viewers and interviewees alike.
“I used to be much less within the gossip and extra within the work or the artwork or telling somebody’s story,” she says. “I took that very same mindset into leisure information as a result of I at all times felt like I needed to shield folks and assist them. I needed them to shine. I didn’t need to be the particular person within the ‘I received you’ second, and so I carried that thread by means of.”
Reinventing leisure on her phrases
Quite than remaining in entrance of the digital camera, Menounos began shaping tales from behind the lens. She and her husband, Keven Undergaro, launched AfterBuzz TV—a digital community targeted on postshow tv content material born from their shared ardour for TV and a spot available in the market.
“We have been actually obsessive about TV and needed to speak about it, and there was nothing there,” Menounos recollects. “When [Keven] noticed that Misplaced’s collection finale simply broke the web and other people needed to speak about it, he knew there was one thing there.” AfterBuzz anticipated the place leisure was headed. As streaming surged and fandoms grew, the platform grew to become a hub for popular culture commentary and a launchpad for rising digital expertise.
Menounos wasn’t simply adapting to the altering media panorama—she was serving to form its path. Her later ventures, together with the Conversations With Maria Menounos collection and extra podcast ventures, additional solidified her function as each a content material creator and connector. Then got here her most private undertaking but: Heal Squad x Maria Menounos. However earlier than we dive into that, it’s important to know the well being journey Menounos was navigating on the identical time.
The chapter she didn’t see coming
Even with all her profession wins, probably the most significant elements of Menounos’ story have occurred behind the scenes. In 2017, she underwent surgical procedure for a benign mind tumor—the meningioma was found as she was caring for her mom, who occurred to be battling one other kind of mind most cancers on the identical time.
The irony couldn’t have been extra hanging, and the expertise despatched a transparent and highly effective message. “Really feel one thing, say one thing, do one thing” grew to become her mission. She urged her followers to advocate for their very own well being and pushed for broader consciousness round early detection and self-care. Her recommendation to viewers on At the moment: “If the signs persist, you have to persist.”
A number of years later, she was recognized with adult-onset kind 1 diabetes.
Then, lower than two years after that, a full-body MRI screening revealed a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a uncommon however much less aggressive type of pancreatic most cancers. Early detection and surgical procedure allowed her to bypass chemo and radiation. The expertise solely strengthened her dedication to public well being advocacy.
Discovering a brand new path ahead
Menounos says her thought of success has advanced since her mind tumor. “For me, success is being wholesome and dealing at a tempo that matches my vitality and my true self…. We’ve all been led to consider that the one manner [to achieve] is to be a workaholic, and after I was in that hospital mattress with the mind tumor, recovering from surgical procedure, I spotted I used to be residing a life that wasn’t genuine to me and my true inside self. I used to be simply doing what I noticed everybody else doing, and I used to be going towards my grain and my nature.”
Nowadays, she’s nonetheless working arduous—however she’s not sacrificing her well-being to be able to sustain. “My work now and my ardour is to assist folks get to that place the place they really feel secure sufficient to understand that, with out your well being, you possibly can’t have all the opposite stuff,” Menounos says.
One other tactic for protecting the large image in thoughts was studying how to decide on surprise over fear. “We’re so conditioned to dwell in worry and to catastrophize. I used to be such an knowledgeable…, however selecting surprise over fear was what helped me shift out of the fetal place with the pancreas most cancers prognosis to, ‘Huh, possibly I’m predicting one thing that’s not even going to come back? Why am I going to the worst-case situation first?’”
She retrained her ideas to lean into curiosity as a substitute of worry. “I might say, ‘I ponder what it’s going to be like when the physician calls me with excellent news.’ After which he did. ‘I ponder what it’s going to be like after I get by means of surgical procedure, and I get to the opposite aspect of this, and I get to satisfy my child?’” (Menounos and her husband welcomed a daughter by way of surrogacy in 2023.) Adopting this mindset introduced actual reduction. She additionally leaned into her religion and credit bestselling creator and researcher Joe Dispenza’s meditation follow with serving to her rework.
“We want instruments, and that’s the factor,” Menounos says. “Life will beat us down, and it’s actually arduous to stand up except you’ve some instruments.” She says life is about progress. “You don’t need to be residing and dwelling up to now since you’re robbing your self of the great thing about now and to come back.”
She launched Heal Squad x Maria Menounos in 2019, initially titled Higher Collectively, as a technique to share what she’d realized and assist others take cost of their very own therapeutic journeys.
Within the sea of movie star podcasts, the wellness and life enchancment podcast stands out for its authenticity and depth, protecting subjects like mindfulness, diet and holistic wellness.
Recognizing the restrictions of standard well being care and the necessity for accessible assets, Heal Squad serves as a complete useful resource for these looking for steering on numerous features of life enchancment.
It’s not only a movie star chat present—it’s a secure house providing real-world worth for these tackling life’s complexities. Menounos interviews thought leaders, well being consultants and on a regular basis individuals who have overcome adversity. Subjects vary from psychological well being and diet to entrepreneurship, relationships and private transformation.
To assist tamp down the overwhelming data that comes with on-line analysis, this system launched Heal Squad journeys. Now a cornerstone of her model, it’s a gathering level of journalism, wellness and neighborhood constructing and, in some ways, a mirrored image of her personal evolution: polished however private, informative however inspiring.
“It’s simply so vital to be preventive, to begin taking a look at what you are able to do now to build up higher habits and higher selections,” Menounos says. “Most of us spend our early lives attempting to attain, and we’re educated: be lady, get good grades, go to a fantastic faculty… and get an enormous job, make some huge cash. After which, it’s have children and get married, however well being is by no means ever, ever within the equation. And, you understand, preventive well being is so vital.”
She says there are foundational issues you are able to do at no cost, like syncing your circadian rhythm, and others, like preventive screenings, which can be typically lined by medical insurance. She’s now leaning in to show these instruments by way of wellness retreats to assist others “be the CEO of their very own well being.”
“I believe, in case your ache persists, you must hold preventing,” Menounos says. If you happen to really feel dismissed by one practitioner, she suggests getting a second opinion. She recommends having well being collaborator, reminiscent of a good friend or podcast, to assist “open your thoughts to different concepts, different modalities.” She says she’s not dedicated to ailments or diseases and the parameters which can be put round them. “I consider we are able to heal from something,” she says.
The enterprise of being Maria
Regardless of—or maybe due to—these challenges, Menounos has by no means stopped constructing. She stays one of many few leisure figures to span almost each media vertical: TV, movie, digital, audio, publishing and sports activities.
This yr, she starred alongside Taye Diggs within the Lifetime quick movie I’ll Be House for Nationwide Margarita Day, a part of a branded content material marketing campaign with Chili’s. That ambassadorship—together with on-the-go content material displayed at fuel stations by way of GSTV, inside film theaters with Noovie and at airports with Maria: Uncover Extra—exhibits simply how far-reaching her media attraction is.
Someday, she’s headlining a well being podcast and the following, she’s anchoring a nationwide advert marketing campaign. But she continues to resonate throughout age teams, bridging longtime followers of her TV work with a brand new era discovering her voice in wellness and digital media.
She’s additionally embraced motherhood with the identical candor that defines her profession, sharing her fertility journey. In a world of fastidiously curated movie star narratives, Menounos’ honesty is a breath of contemporary air, redefining what it means to be within the highlight.
Greater than a star—Menounos is a strategist—and a survivor. In a quickly evolving media panorama, she’s confirmed that staying related takes greater than visibility—it takes adaptability, authenticity and a mission. From high-profile occasions to quiet restoration rooms, Menounos has managed to show private well being setbacks into platforms, hardship into connection. What units her aside isn’t simply what she produces however how totally and actually she exhibits up.
If the previous is any indication, Menounos isn’t slowing down anytime quickly. With a rising media portfolio, a thriving podcast and a renewed sense of function in motherhood, she’s poised for her most impactful chapter but.
Her new filter for selecting initiatives is easy: Does it really feel proper? “It’s at all times, ‘Are they good folks, and do I really feel secure working with them?’” she asks herself. “I’ve handled lots of poisonous [work] environments, and I don’t have it within the vitality funds or the well being funds anymore.”
Her focus is much less about fame—and extra about footprint: serving to others heal and thrive. In Menounos’ world, legacy isn’t inherited—it’s one thing you construct, second by second, message by message. And he or she’s simply getting began.
Photograph by John Russo. This text initially appeared within the September/October 2025 concern of SUCCESS® journal.
