Maria Menounos, 42, has been asking for “prayers” for her parents who are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.
She revealed that she has been taking care of her parents after a weeklong absence from hosting her daily show, Better Together.
Menounos said that she initially flew to Los Angeles to take care of her mother Litsa, who has a brain tumor and is battling stage IV brain cancer.
In the latest episode of Better Together, the entertainment reporter said, “We got some not some not so great news on Monday, November 23, that my mom’s brain tumor was growing.”
The next day, Menounos explained that her mother’s caretaker called in sick, which is why she and her husband, Keven Undergaro, went to help.
“We land, and that’s when this all started,” she said. “I’m just going to share that we’re in process right now, and we still need prayers. Long story short is that within a few hours, both of my parents were diagnosed with COVID,”
Menounos’ mother immediately went to the hospital, and her father followed soon after.
Tearing up, the journalist said, “First it was my mom; they had rushed her to the hospital right when I landed, and then a few hours later my dad tested positive. It was absolutely surreal. And at this moment, both of them are in separate hospitals here in Los Angeles.”
Menounos, who had a golf-ball-sized meningioma, a benign brain tumor, in 2017, said, “It’s been pretty insane,” adding that she is trying not to linger on what could happen to her parents.
“I’ve kept focusing on what my desired outcome, and not what my fear was, and that helped me a lot,” she added. “I think as it has extended, and I’ve become more and more tired, fear creeps back in.”
She said things have been difficult for the last few weeks. “It has been an incredible challenge,” she said.
“You work so hard to keep your parents healthy and alive, and to see something like this happen,” she added. “I mean it was bad enough on Monday to hear that about my mom’s tumor. And then the pile of that, um, is a lot.”
Menounos said, “Luckily, we’ve had incredible doctors, incredible nurses, incredible friends, and incredible family, that have lifted up and helped us in this time. I can’t say enough about these nurses who are now having to manage FaceTime sessions. That’s not part of their job.” The article originally appeared on PEOPLE.
