Maria Menounos Undergoes Terrifying Brain Tumor Surgery, Leaves Position At E!

Maria Menounos is fighting for her life after undergoing surgery to remove "a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor" last month, RadarOnline.com can report.

"This February I thought I had an ear infection so I went to a doctor, and he said, 'Your ears are the cleanest things I've ever seen. What else are you feeling?' I'd been getting light-headed on set and having headaches. My speech had gotten slurred, and I was having difficulty reading the teleprompter. I said, 'I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but I think I have a brain tumor like my mom,'" Menounos said.

The 39-year-old TV host continued to People: "He said, 'I don't think you're crazy. Let's just get an MRI.' The next week I started feeling better, so I was like, 'I'm clearly paranoid.' So I kept pushing the MRI."

Finally, three months later, Menounos went in for a scan. The doctors concluded it was a benign brain tumor, and removed it. The star is currently recovering from home.

E! announced today that she has left the network after three years to focus on her recovery.

"For me, I saw it as a huge blessing and a huge gift because I needed to change my life," she said in an emotional Today show interview, which aired today. "We're caretakers as women and we help everybody and we put ourselves last always. And I don't think — at least for me — I guess I realized I didn't value myself in a lot of ways. And so I think that that was a really important lesson."

The beloved TV personality has claimed she now wants to focus on starting a family with fiancé, Keven Undergaro, 37.

"You realize really quickly when something like this happens that nothing else really matters," she said.

As RadarOnline.com can reveal, the star's mother Litsa Menounos, is currently battling stage 4 brain cancer.

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