Maria Menounos

As she was caring for her mother who suffers from stage 4 brain cancer, Maria learned that she was in the midst of a health crisis on her own. In February 2014 Menounos started experiencing troubling symptoms. In the exclusive cover report of PEOPLE, Menounos reveals that she experienced headaches and lightheadedness while on set. "My speech had gotten lost and I had difficulties using the transcript". A MRI discovered that Menounos was suffering from a meningioma the size of a golf ball brain tumor pushing the facial nerves. Menounos scheduled an appointment to see her mother's neurosurgeon, Dr. Keith L. Black. Surgery was scheduled for June 8, Menounos' 39th birthday. "He said, 'I'm 98 percent certain it's normal, however we'll never know until we're in the hospital at the time of surgery,'" she says. The complicated procedure took around seven hours. Dr. Black was capable of getting rid of 99.9% of the benign cancer. According Dr. Black, there's 7 percent likelihood of the tumor recurring. This is my most reliable bet. Menounos, who was admitted to hospital for 6 days, is back at home at home and has been spending recovering.