Maria Manunos is a journalist, TV presenter, and actress who is best known for being a host on shows like Extra E News, Access Hollywood, and more. She currently is the host of her own podcast, Heal Squad. She has dedicated her life, her career, her energy to helping people heal After her own medical journey, Maria is no stranger to her personal life being in the public eye, but the mom to be is stronger than ever and ready for this next chapter in her life. This is just
be with Maria Manunos. Let's get into it.
So I remember that did we first meet each other?
Oh?
I think we first met each other at beaches for that like pr.
Trip, yeah, and Caicos.
Right, yep, you're right.
I remember that being really nice.
Like I was sort of surprised at what I thought beaches or sandals, and I think they actually advertise on here. When I got went there, I remember it was like a new building the Italian village, and I was surprised how nice it was. Didn't you find that to be like actually really beautiful?
Agreed? I remember they made the swans on our beds out of the towels. Yes, it was so cute and I'm friendly with Adam Stewart still and I've you know, kept in touch throughout the years. They're really lovely people.
Yeah, it was really nice.
But that's how I first sort of just met you being at that event, and then I guessed maybe being interviewed by you because we were extra an access Hollywood. And then when I guess you reached out during relief work for Be Strong, and that's how we kind of really started connecting. Yep, and you introduced me to some people during during Hurricane Maria.
Because my perception of you is just.
Really kind and friendly and nice and positive and always reaching out. And you know, I don't know, I just we don't know each other that well, but I feel like we know each other a little bit.
And we hung out in New Orleans too.
Yeah, I feel like we are kind of like sisters on a path, right. We want to do better and we want to help people. And so I remember when you were doing all the relief stuff. I can't remember which tragedy or disaster it was, but I was in an airport in DC and I was seeing what you were doing, and I was so blown away and I was like welling up in tears. Like, gosh, this woman is unbelievable in what she's doing for people and just a one woman machine. And I reached out and I said,
how can I support you? And as soon as I started talking to you, I realized, Oh, she really is a one woman machine, making everyone on the planet her like assistant in a sense, like you were like everyone's involved. I don't care if I've never met you before. I need you to do this, I need you to do that, and you just know how to mobilize people and get
shit done. And I was so blown away, and so yeah, yeah, when COVID hit, I remember as well getting you in touch with I think it was Grant to get you some funds and you.
Were amazing, And yeah it was Hurricane Maria and you got me in touch with that guy Grant and people. And then again you reached out and you kind of were the one to let me know how much of a shit show the PPE situation was, Like you were one of the first people to care about that. And then we ended up doing I Have the Hills. We ended up doing PPE to all fifty states. I think
it was like fifteen million dollars in PPE. I'm the type of person that someone else alerts me to something, or many people do, and then I become like this crazy like terminator that exactly as you said, becomes just like can't stop and has to go all the way.
But You've always.
Connected about that, and and I've met Kevin, your husband, and I think we I asked you this, but I don't remember. What was the reason you waited so long to actually get married and why did you feel that it was necessary to be married legally married?
Uh? You know, when we first got together as a couple, there was a lot of family turmoil. We had a lot of issues with ironically both of us, with our brothers, and it was it was just not in the cards because if we got married, we wouldn't have included them and my parents and his parents would have been devastated.
Oh oh, that's interesting.
So it really was that for like really because at first we were like, oh my gosh, let's go get married in Vegas, Like we were just you know, so obsessed with each other and so wanted to do it, and then it kind of just there was just this like little bit of a dark cloud with what was
going on. And very soon after I met Kevin, I ended up getting my first job in La so we moved out here and then just the mad train just started and we just, you know, there was no time, there was no and for us, we just you know, we were really sad about the family situations, and I knew that we wouldn't do it until things were rectified. And it took many years, like twenty years to get to that place.
I mean, you don't have to tell me about it, because I know that. I mean, that's not even something I've ever heard about. But how did you resolve? First of all, because you wanted it to be a big affair, because you could have just gone to I relate to. This is why I'm asking because I'll explain why. But you could have just gone to city Hall. But like, is there any part of you that it didn't matter. You were committed to each other and it's just a piece of paper, like the total.
Contract and who can totally Yeah, forerever we were like we're married in our hearts. I really didn't believe a piece of paper was going to make a difference, right, and so it didn't matter to me. And I remember being at chris Generous for Christmas and she was telling me. You know, my mom was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer at the time, and she's like, tomorrow has never promised.
And I was hosting New Year's Eve for Fox with Steve Harvey and they had asked me if I would want to get married on the show, and I was like, oh, no, way, And then I thought about it. I'm like, wait, I can get married on TV, meaning everyone can be a part of it, but I don't have to worry about inviting anyone or organizing, dealing with anything, which I had been on Martha Stewart's show years ago and it was funny. It was like a wedding week and I was like
the Debbie Downer about weddings. I'm like, I hate weddings. They're nightmares. Everyone makes the wife the bride miserable, and I don't want any of that stress. So I got the perfect scenario for me and my mom and dad were surprised live on air and it was a really beautiful experience. And then later that year, my real dream, which was to get married in the village my dad was from, came together. So we got married in the village in Greece and it was an unbelievable of wow.
And I like, and I get all that because often so if something comes and it's like an appearance that appeared in Australia, you're almost as excited. You're just excited that someone else is planning the like they're gonna plan the hotel, by all of it, you're gonna show up and I could bring my daughter and we'll be meeting Koalas. So I get what you're saying, like it was a planned wedding. So you know, every time I hear about something unfortunate happening with you, I almost can't believe it.
All back to back. So your mom passes away, which was so devastating for you, tragic, being on just that alone, like really took you out at the need and then and didn't you get married around that time or you had been married that far before?
We had been married at that point, because my mom passed two years ago, but.
You weren't married that long, right, wasn't it like all in the same.
Year or now, maybe it was like three years before? Oh okay, it was soon.
It was okay, So so she got to see you get married, your mom passes away, and your dad you're very close with and he's devastated too, obviously, so you're sort of taking care of him emotionally too.
And then and then you are diagnosed with your own illness.
The first the first was the brain tumor soon after she was diagnosed, So she was diagnosed late August twenty sixteen. By April twenty seventeen, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. So we went through the brain tumor journey, which was crazy and so yeah, and then she passed. She made it five years, which was a miracle. We beat COVID, which was you know, a feat in and of itself.
But she was so weak, couldn't give her the chemo, so she couldn't keep that tumor at bay, and so the tumor grew out of control and that's how we lost her.
Oh my god.
And then you what were you thinking and going through? And I mean, how did you remain positive? Like what are you actually thinking when you hear that kind of news? And like then how do you digest it and move through it? And what is going on every day when like stupid thing happening that no longer seem like they matter, or like a dumb purse or pair of shoes that you thought mattered to match an outfit or something like what goes on?
Yeah, I mean none of that stuff matters. I remember I filmed every step of the way, So if I'm ever curious how I handled it, I'll go back to my video diaries because I'm too lazy to write, so do video diaries. And I remember just being in shock because my whole life was committed to helping her through this and finding another way and researching new alternatives and just piecing together her health. As I say here on my show on Heel Squad, I always say you have
to be the CEO of your health. You can't give that power over to anybody. You can take opinions, you can get information, you can go to people for things that they are experts on and whatever. We could get into that deeper.
Oh no, beyond it, we have to get into that, because that's yeah, we have to get into that.
But I ran my mom's health and I know that you know which he had comes with a six to twelve month diagnosed death sentence. She ended up getting five years and the only reason she isn't here is because of COVID. So after she passed, I had a loss of identity because I was a caretaker now for five years. I had really given her the ferocity that I had put into my career and all of that went to her and becoming a fake doctor, and so I had
a loss of identity. I was really kind of just in this I don't know, maybe like a purgatory in a sense, where I just kind of would look at her picture in my kitchen and be like, I can't believe you're not here anymore. Not MOPy, but just little lost, and then.
Like, what's the point of anything, what's going on? What are we all doing? Like what?
Yeah?
Yeah, and yes, I really do understand that.
So I really like leaned into the grieving because I knew I had to go through it. You can't go around, you can't, you know, you got to just go through it. And so she passed May second. By September, I had a reading with Maryanne de Marco, the medium, And have you ever had a reading with her? No, you'd love her. My mom reached out to her and she connected. She's like, I know this sounds, you know, probably crazy to you,
but your mom really wants to connect with you. So we connected in a session and From that moment on, I felt lifted and so much better and was able to kind of proceed with life.
Ah interesting, you know, like I.
Was kind of grinding along still. I was building a website at the time, and I was, you know, grudging through everything. But then after that I felt better, and so, yeah, it was it was kind of a rough thing, and then some health stuff started accumulating, and I was like trying to get to the bottom of everything. What is this, what's happening? Why is my stomach bloated? Why am I not why is something wrong? And nobody can figure it out?
And funny enough, I had a listener just recently reach out to us and say, you predicted all of this stuff over a year ago, and you watch this show and I'm saying, how I know something's wrong. They can't tell me what it is, and they kind of just give up after they do a test rather than say yeah, they'll do the test and they'll say, oh, there's nothing there, and they give up. And I'm like, wait, but why
is the investigation stopping? And you hear me on the show saying all of this bee and I'm like, I said, but I'm going to keep going and we have oh funny enough, and we have this medium on the show, Marian DeMarco, and she's going to teach us how to tune in our bodies. So maybe this will help us all in our journeys as we try to figure out mysteries like this. And I literally go like this. I look up to the sky or the roof of my studio and I say, you know, for example, I think
there's something wrong with my pancreas. I said that last April, and I didn't realize what I was doing, but I was tuning in in that moment. I just didn't connect the dots. And so two months later I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. First instinct was I don't have this, and I went to a natural path and started a whole new journey. And she's like, I don't think you have this either. At that point, they probably should have done an ultrasound on my pancreas at forty three or
forty four. To I was turning forty four, to be getting type one diabetes made no sense. I had quit sugar two or three years prior to that, so that I would never have anything like that happen. And so I went on this whole healing journey and then started getting these horrible pains, like I think I'm dying. Went to the hospital in November. They scan everything, they say you're fine. So anytime I complained thereafter, they said, well,
we just did a scan and it says everything's fine. Well, at that point, I had a tumor on my pancreas that was two centimeters. They missed it. It then grew to four centimeters by January. And I was at Anastasia Sore's house in December for her birthday and this woman came up to me and she's like, you need to come to our facility. We do full body Mriyes, you
have to come. You have to come. And so I went, and I was nervous because I had a feeling and I'm very intuitive and I'm very connected, and I knew something was wrong. And they were like, you have a large mass on your pancreas. You need to go to the hospital right now. And I was like what. I remember looking at him and my eyes kind of welled and I was like, so, Magonner, huh, because the only
thing you know about with pancreas tumors is you're dead. Right, and here I am like, I can't believe I have a baby on the way and I might not get to meet her. It was crazy.
Oh my, that is that is unbelieving.
It's really I've reached out to you when I heard, which wasn't that long ago, just because I was like, what the hell she's been through so much and well I want to talk about like.
How thank you for reaching out, by the way, because you were so sweet, or like anything you need. And I'm like, I know you mean it.
I do mean it. I do mean it. I do mean it.
But just to go back to what you said about the CEO aspect, it's so funny because.
I have this.
I've had this autoimmune issue and many people say it's exacerbated by vaccines, and you know, you get very confused, and to your point, you get excited, like motivated, like anything like someone working out or someone juice fasting or eating healthy or whatever anyone does. I was like excited, you know, oh my god, And you get the notebooks out and you're ready to go, and everyone pulls you
in different directions, everyone and everything sounds good. Oh it must be your gut, it has to be this is it? A breast implant?
Is it this? Do you have lime disease?
And you really have to stay so strong in the middle, because if you did that with your business, you would fail. If everybody pulled you in fifty different directions and you said yes to every single thing every day or socially,
you'd be a disaster. So I was going this way and talking to anyone, and I would say, you're the CEO unless you can find a good doctor that doesn't even have to be a genius, like a human being concierge, that can be the center of that wheel with all those spokes and connect to different things and at least dispel Well that's bullshit. Well that guy isn't Alwa's talking about.
That guy seems like you might know what he's talking about because I flew across the country to go see somebody, and then people were coming out and saying that guy doesn't even do that, Like this person targeted you and wants to use you for social and they don't even do that. And then they're telling me ten different things. And the truth is, even with people that don't do whatever this is, you pick up little breadcrumbs along the way and you learn things even people don't even know
what they're talking about. Like you'll learn something, you'll learn something that's wrong, something it's right, and.
It's case law.
You're just saying, like that doesn't work. Remember that thing, it didn't work, So it's not that and you got to kind of be really organized and like pull together your own thing. And no doctor is some wizard. They're just an accumulation of medical information that they've studied, trial and error that they've deduced. I like a doctor that says they don't know, but they're willing to look to
find out. Like I don't like someone who says they'ren export because no one can be an expert on all these things.
Yeah, I love what you said. They're an accumulation of information that they've read and researched and studied. You know. Tony Robbins put it really, really best in his most recent book about health. He said, doctors can be sincere, but they can be sincerely wrong as well. And I think that, like my mission with my show Bethany is to help people see what the medical world is for what it is. Kind of it's like here's what you're not seeing, here's what you're not understanding. Let's get the
foundation right here. They are. The Western world is amazing at surgeries, prescribing, pretty good at diagnosing, right. There are a lot of diagnostics that they have to help us kind of get to the bottom of some stuff. But you know, there's some things that are going to fall through the cracks. Healing is not on the list for them.
And from that process like X rays, like process blood tests, urine test x rays.
That's what I was saying, the diagnostics.
Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
But when you talk to really, really, really high level doctors, they will tell you the number one goal of a hospital or a doctor's office is not to get sued. The number two goal is business, make money. That's what is on their top two. Unfortunately, and I've had so many people come on my show Double Triple Board certified Zach Bush. He's like, I went to medical school thinking I was going to heal people. I woke up and realized I was a pharmacist. They get a year of
pharmacology in medical school. They get a couple of hours of nutrition. Hippocrates said, the father of medicine said, let food be thy medicine, what are we doing? Something is backwards so it's not the doctor's individual faults. It's the system. It's the system and how it's set up, and the and the business of it all. So we as the.
That's divorced too. It's the same story with divorce and lawyers. It's the same thing. They're there to make money and you need them as a tool. So the doctors you need as a tool, but they have other goals as well. And it's exactly to your point. It's to cover your ass model. It's in most industries. It exists, and you just have to know how to use them as a tool.
And I mean divorce for one second. What I have seen is everybody gets a lawyer and then each side has to nuke the other side. It can't be friendly, it can't be. You got to nuke them so that someone gives in a little so that you'll get to kind of this instead of going to like, you know, one million dollars, you're going to get to five hundred thousand. The you know, the goal is going to be to get to five hundred. But they get a nukequu to think you're gonna get this. They they make it so
much worse. They have to say the worst things about each other. They have to they have to lie, cheat still, whatever it takes, and then somebody gives in or then they're finally just going to get to here where you could have just gotten there from beginning anyway.
No, so, but that's that.
There's an analogy with the medicine too. I think like you cout me come in and versus you start in with the whole macro and get overwhelmed and like you think you solved it because it's this thing and you chase that dream and then it's something else.
So I really do get it. I have to send you.
Did someone ever send you one of those big like medical beautiful binders.
This company sent me this gorgeous it looks like.
This navy blue leather with tabs and sections, and it looks like the ultimate trapper keeper for your health. I think there should be one for divorce for health. It's so smart because you do go to these doctors with these, you know, folders. So this has been a big part of your and it is defining you in some way.
Like I think of you and this whole part of your life as kind of the main part of your life and used to be someone you know, a beautiful girl in the entertainment industry that used to do interviews on the red carpet, and now I really that's been sort of rinse, and I really think of you this way.
So how does it not define you? Though in a way that's like doom and gloom, like these medical daunting things that for like words like cancer and pancreation, you know, brain tumor, like these things that are just gigantic one of these things happening, and your mom died, like this is a lot of stuff on you, like energetically, and so I wonder how do you have it define what you're doing but not define you?
Yeah, I mean, fabulous question. Never actually thought about it outside of this, Like when this pancreas tumor thing happened, it's a neuroendocrine tumor, and you know, it wasn't like the doctor was like you have cancer, you're dying or anything like that. There was moments where we didn't know what kind of tumor it was and it was really scary, and you're on that cliff and on the ledge of death and you're like having conversations with Kevin saying this
is how I want you to raise our daughter. This is what I want you to do. Like, it was kind of crazy, but when I got the diagnosis, he said, it's a neuroendocrine tumor, and I'm like, is it pancreas cancer. He's like, yes, it's a pancreas cancer, but it's not the worst pancreas cancer. He goes, there are two buckets. If you could be in any bucket, you want to be in your bucket, and the same thing happened with the brain tumor. If you can be in any bucket,
you don't want to be in your mom's bucket. You want to be in this bucket. Okay. So somehow these crazy things happen or have happened, and I am able to come out the other side, and so I'm super grateful. When this happened with the tumor and the pancreas, I was scared to say something about it because I'm like, oh my gosh, people are going to think I'm this fragile,
sick person and I'm not. I'm vibrant and healthy. I know that there are things that have gone wrong, and I know that COVID definitely played a role in a lot of stuff. That's gone wrong. But I know I'm a healthy person. But there was also this thing that I couldn't I have a show that's dedicated to life improvement and health and wellness, very very heavily focused in health.
How could I not tell the truth? Even just not telling my audience in that timeframe hurt me so much, And so it was a dark secret I was keeping. But then to not be able to tell people that there is a way. So that episode last April, when I was saying I know something's wrong, and I was researching thermography, I was researching all these things to see what other way can I figure out what's happening with me? And this full body MRI. It's not at the hospital.
This is an outside facility. Because I'm not saying people should go get full BODYMRIS and get get lineum injected in their veins constantly. That's not what I'm saying. This is a very safe procedure. But if you have something you suspect something is wrong and your doctors are not listening to you. There you know a lot of women don't get heard unfortunately, and they make us feel like
we're crazy. I'm really blessed to have a doctor who is so on board and so on sync with me, and he really saved my life because he kept pushing everyone to move faster.
And faster exactly.
But but he was your concent he was like, yeah, center.
And they made fun of him. They're like, this is nothing. This is maybe pancreatitis or inflammation. But he's, you know, up our ass to get this biopsy done. So we're going to do it. But you're fine, We've been doing this for twenty years. These are very elite doctors, by the way, of course, and I hate even saying that,
but you know, it's the truth. They did say that, and and they gas lit him and me in the room before I went for the biopsy, and then after it was like, well, I guess it's something, and I'm like okay, And he kept pushing to move things faster and faster. And what's crazy is it went from grade
one to grade two so fast. And so anyhow, my point is the reason I had to come out about this and kind of say whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and people's perceptions of me is people needed to know that there's another option and getting these full body MRIs is another option. If you know something's wrong inside of you, they will find it. They're incentivized to find it because it's their only job and
their only mission. Now, they're very expensive. I understand that, and I'm working on getting them covered for people with Grant and a few other people because I know they know how to do it. With the insurance companies. It behooves them to do this because if you catch something early, that patient is going to cost them far less than if they catch it later. So I was like, Okay, people say, turn your mess into your mission or whatever
the hell they say. I don't know, Like I'm going to figure this out for people, you know, Do I worry that people think these things of me. I still want, you know, to work in this business. They still want to do things. I have such an energy and such a I love having fun and do I.
I meant more from you, not what people think though, Like I meant, I think you're this person. I don't think of you as weak. I think of you as a person who's like on this path to help, like not only your own health obviously, but just like you are passionate about this. You've been through it and you're
communicator messenger. I meant within you, like you feeling like you got scared, you weren't gonna be able to be a mother to your daughter, and that you had all these things happen, like for you, for it to be for you to get out of the purgatory you said you were in, like for you to be you know, perky and silly and lighthearted and like, you know, not have.
It to find you.
For you.
I don't think I get to party for people unless I mean, you may think that. I don't see you like that. I see you as like strong and a survivor. But maybe that's what you meant that you don't want you don't want everyone to thank you as that.
Yeah, well that's what that was my worry, because you know it would. This has just been a very crazy, you know, crazy situation. But uh, for me, I think the only thing I feel is at times some paranoia. If I like, there was a period and the healing that happened. I remember being in Maui and I was having really sharp pains and I was like, oh my god, oh my god, what is this. You know, you're getting scared, And then my doctors were like it's just things reconnecting.
You're healing inside, and I'm like okay, and then I have to just pray. And then I have to remember that I'm guided and unprotected, and I have to use all my tools that I've learned on the show and implement them. And then I calm down and then everything gets better. And so those pains have gone away and I do feel better and I'm like okay, but there are things that will pop up. Like the other day, I was having pain in my side. I'm like, oh
my god, is that my kidney? Oh my god? And so I just prayed to Saint Niktarios or healing Saint. I said, please, can you just remove that pain and heal whatever's there? And it worked and I was like, okay, thank you.
So and how has and has Kevin been on his own roller coaster ride too?
Like scared?
And you have a baby, and you're married, and you got everything that you want and you worked at your family issues and now has how has he been handling everything emotionally?
This one terrified him. This one we were both like fetal position, like what the heck? Because, like I said, there was a moment we thought he was going to be raising this baby alone, and that sounds really scary. But he's been a trooper and he's been a great caretaker. And I just said to him, I go, I just don't know why in this lifetime. When I met him at nineteen, what sealed the deal for me? First of all,
I was like, Okay, I'm attracted him. But I remember him telling me that he took massage therapy classes to heal his dad of pain because his dad had cancer. And I remember thinking, wow, yeah, And I remember thinking, oh my god, you're a caretaker. Done, I'm going to make you fall in love with me. I don't know why, Bethany,
at nineteen, I thought I needed a caretaker. But I am very intuitive and I must have known inside of me, but not only to me, my dad, my mom during COVID to protect us, he would take my mom to chemo to the hospital and it was not easy because my mom had a lot of kind of brain damage and she had a lot hard time walking at some point with her left side. It was a real job and he loved it. He loved those days. He's like, they're my favorite days. We have so much fun together.
So he's had this caretaking job this whole time, and so yeah, he's I don't know why God has giving you so many care taking jobs. I'm so sorry.
As important thing in life, thinking about that, like as a people don't talk enough about not doctors, not medical professionals, but the caretaker. That's like the day and day at the morale, the real like feeding the spirit and the soul.
Very interesting.
It's funny because I started this meditation program last January and it changed my life. And one of the things I focused on was full mind, body and soul healing, and a lot of people in my life, like Abby Bernstein, she was like, you know, sometimes when tumors come up, it's a good thing, they say, because it's coming to the surface to get out. And one of the things I kept saying is I want to be super healthy.
And I see myself with like a superhero cape that says super healthy and when she arrives and so funny enough, all of this stuff came to surface at this point so that it could all go away. And that because my goal is and I say in my head, I want to I want her to know when she lands on my chest that I'm super healthy. I want to know who she is and that we're going the distance together. That's all I want.
Oh that's so nice. Oh my god. So you have a big summer plan. Wow? Yeah Wow?
So what else are you working on? I know that you're acting. I didn't even know that you were. I mean, I know that because I I was reading back. It's so funny to read someone's bio that like you know them. But I mean, I remember sitting with Brinn and talking about One Tree Hill when we were watching it rewatch it during the pandemic. I'm like, I'm friends with her, but I sort of had forgotten until I read it again today. So I didn't even know that acting was
like a real passion of yours. Was that the first thing that was before hosting?
I don't know, Like, if it's a passion, it's it's super fun. I really enjoy it. I have done it kind of in tandem with my hosting throughout the years, so there have been you know, the Fantastic Four or any of the things that I've done, and then recently got into Christmas movies and my husband and I are obsessed with Christmas movies. It was on my bucket list and right after my mom died. I got connected with my friend Ryan and he was like, we're going to
be in Connecticut shooting. I'm like, I'm in Connecticut right now. So it all worked out. And so Kevin and I are building a production company now and building a fund so we can make these Christmas movies that people love already. But we're like, let's just take them up a notch, right, take them up one notch?
And what does that mean?
Like, you mean quality notch humor notch or yeah, I want.
To make I want to make even better Christmas movies.
That's amazing. So when is the first why? And you're in them or of them?
We're well, I've been into I did one last year and this year this time because of the baby, I won't be able to film one this summer, so this Christmas will probably be out. But we are in the process of building this fund and so by next year we'll be making them.
That I love. That. That's so fun. What's the production company called?
H We haven't figured out the name yet.
Oh okay, And so what do you spend most of your time doing besides doing your show? Like, are you what else are you doing? You're not writing?
Because you don't like to write, So what how do you? How do you bounce?
Like?
What does your time pie look like now leading into having a baby. What's the biggest percentage of time spent on Well?
I do my show a couple times a week, so we're a daily show. Kevin does one day. It's kind of like we go to school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Kevin's the fun on the Friday slash he does his priest sermons and so the show is my big focus. And then you know, I do random, you know, commercial stuff, or I fill in for Kelly like you do and ONLVE with Kelly and Mark. Now and my plate has really just been filled right now with healing
and getting ready for baby. And so just the other day we set up all the stuff in the house. We're like, okay, I need to know how to use this stuff, like this bugaboo carriage and all this you know, mama rou like bascinettes and snooze and the whole thing. I don't know how to use any of this stuff.
It was so it's that easy, right, No friends come over.
Did you feel the same way?
I felt the same way?
I felt that don't over complicate it because you use the simplest stuff and the same thing with them, they use the simple stuff, meaning your child as they get older. But I was I had a PREMI and I was very just like I was scared to leave thet I didn't understand how to just like we go for a walk. I have this tiny, fragile being and now we go out for a walk, like why what are we doing? The baby doesn't know what's going on, but like it's the fresh air and you just feel like you need
to leave the house. And then that path the only thing I really do love and it doesn't have to be whatever the brand is. The patpoos on the chest thing, like that's a great thing because it just means you're just like you're ready to go.
It's what do you mean your cat poos on the chair?
I didn't have the pat the baby on your chest, Like you take a walk and it's just like you guys together, And that was I mean I don't really exercise, but like taking walks to go places that just felt very freeing because I felt very clunky with.
A stroller and all the stuff. So I liked the Kangaroo program.
Yeah, I like the Kangaroo Program too, so I had to learn how to use that thing because one of them is just like it's just this in little cloth thing or like like the thinnest T shirt you've ever had material, and you have to wrap it around and do it all yourself. It's just this one more piece. And then I'm like, wait, but this thing's so thin, how is she not going to fall out of this? And I was so scared, so I put a stuffed
animal in and I was practicing. But it's been fun, Like it's it's so crazy to have a baby later in life. I think it's it's such a cool thing because I'm going to give her all of my time.
Yeah, I mean I was a lot of it.
You know.
I was late thirty, so I was later too, and it's funny you're bringing me back. I The one thing I did learn was that when everyone would say how you balance work and being a mom, was that I was really present and am present in both, like because you try to do both at the same time. You're trying to like I would be running out of photoshoots, like taking food from the photoshoots so I could bring it to her because I didn't want to be gone
for a second, and she wouldn't even notice. Like you get in your head about this stuff that doesn't matter, and every class and every rug that has letters and numbers on it and they don't know. You just like kind of feel like you should be doing everything, and it's it's a little it's too much. You don't need
to be so crazed. And also then to be really just present in work, but versus like checking in all the time and being obsessed with not being there and the guilt, like it's just it doesn't serve you, that guilt in both directions that being torn.
I found.
Yeah, how did you feel about having an only child? How has that worked for you? Because we're kind of getting cozy with the idea now. I love it.
I love it. She loves it. I was an only child.
I don't even think of it as a thing, like it's not and she doesn't think of it as a thing. I've loved it. I mean, being a mother is the
best thing in the world. It's the greatest thing if you like get your own relationship with it, like not getting caught up in your head and taking everyone's opinions because you don't know anybody who has a perfect child or that's a perfect parent, So like getting worried about doing things right or wrong, you know, I just I didn't have a nanny, And I don't say that like
I'm some hero or anything. I had a baby nurse for a while, but I liked later always doing the bath myself and always doing these things because if I had had some one there, I would have relied, the muscle would have gotten weak because you have someone there to do it. So of course the bath is a pain in the ass sometimes like things are pains in the ass, but when you do them yourself.
It's like it's really nice.
And I really really stuck to that schedule because it's your only friend. So when they're sleeping, it's your only friend.
Is that schedule?
Yeah, you talk about like what I've been doing, I'm reading books. Yeah, I'm trying to because it's like it's like a business, like it's a whole other world you have to delve into and learn about. Not that you're gonna do things perfect, but just an awareness of a schedule even being important.
Yeah, and awareness of schedule, the consistency and the schedule is important. But you'll learn most everything from the baby in front of you. But I do think that that was something safe and you make up your it's it's like same with the dog. Every four hours, you're letting them up for a while, like you know, it's like it doesn't matter if it was three and a half hours or five and a half hours, whatever thing you decided with your dog that worked.
It's like that you just have to.
Stick to something that seems like, you know, some program that you can adhere to just for your own sanity, you know.
Kevin jokes, he chokes that he's been in the infant stages for twenty plus years with our dogs, that they wake them up every three hours anyway. So he's like, what's the difference?
Not a lot. Well, we'll see where. You'll let me know.
They say, which made me very sad. They say, when you have a baby, your dog becomes a dog because your dog's are your babies. And when Ellen DeGeneres on her show asked me to debate, does to Brennan Cookie my dog who passed get along, and I said, they do get along, and it'd be unfortunate to have to give away the baby.
So I'm glad they do.
I die for you. That's amazing.
I could be hard hard to have to give away a child cook he was there eighteen years. Sorry, just a new baby, you know.
Yeah.
So I love you, yeah, yep, yeah.
So well, I'm really really happy to know you. I'm really happy for your success, and I'm so sorry you've been through such tragedy. But I mean, I hate to refer to it the way that I think of divorce with the world. Worst thing that ever happened to me was my wretched, horrendous ten year divorce, And while going through it, I would say to myself, like, this is happening for a reason. I know it's happening for a reason.
It's one golf hole. There are eighteen holes. One day I'll be done with this and I'll be able to help other people. I mean, and I really am an expert on divorce. And like you didn't go to medical school and I didn't go to law school, but I am an expert on every aspect of divorce. So you're an expert on many many things as it pertains to health and at least the whole industry, you're definitely an expert on, So you really can help other people.
Yeah, and that's always been my underpinning in life, right I've always wanted to help people. I love helping people, and so I don't look at them as tragedies. I look at them as opportunities for growth. I've grown so much, I've learned so much. I know that I'm so freaking strong. I know that I can handle anything that comes my way. My faith has become more and more rooted and strengthened
every single second of every day. Even though I thought it was the most may like it couldn't get any better, it does get better and better, and so I keep becoming a better person because of all of it. So I'm grateful for the journey. I know that, you know, there's nothing I can do. It is what it is, and so I'm going to do the best I can to roll positively through things. And that's why I love my show, because I learn how to do that through here.
Every single day, I'm getting tools to help me, you know, ride those crazy waves of life, and they're gonna happen. Problems come, but they are opportunities for growth, and we're not going to see it like that right away. And by the way, when I was facing what I was facing,
I was shook. But at some point I remember looking at my mantle with all my icons, and I say all my prayers every night for everybody and everyone who's sick in my life, and I was like, this doesn't make any sense, and I just kept saying it, and then I realized it doesn't make sense. So why do I have to look at it like this is the end? Why can't I look at it like perhaps it's not going to be the story the way I think of it.
I had someone on the show that said, choose wonder over worry, So I started saying, I wonder what it's going to be like when the doctors call with good news. I wonder what it's going to be like when I get through the surgery easily. I wonder what it's going to be like when I hear that there's no cancer spread anywhere, which is what I did here and once I started doing that. So if I can give you guys, one massive tip aside from the other stuff, choose wonder
over worry. It helps you and you also help manifest the things that you start wondering about because you get into this creative mode and the quantum and everything starts, you know, conspiring in the universe to work in your favor, so choose wonder and those things started happening instantly when I started doing it.
Yeah, it seems like your combination of an emotional person
and a problem solver. So you have something that happens to you that's certainly not fortunate in that moment, and you're probably struggling with like the emotionality of it, like not just being because I get accused of like I'm in mode immediately as you described earlier, so like you're in mode too, but you have to also deal with the emotionality of your partner of having a baby girl coming like it's it must be interesting to balance both of those elements because you just could jump over the
emotion and get right into problem solving, but you're kind of dealing with both.
Yeah, and I kind of do get in a problem solver fast. That's why you and I connect so much. And now I'm having to, Okay, I got to go into therapy now and really hash this out, because yes, I moved through things so fast. Same sounds like Maria. You go through things that are so crazy so quickly, it's like it never happened, but it did happen, and you need to process it, agreed.
But that's my proble exactly, Like because you're like, well, no, I'm gonna go here and I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna talk to that person. I got this, I got this notebook, this number two pencil, and I'm ready. And it's like, right, but you just heard this crazy news and you have a daughter and a mom that you know this stuff. I have the same. That's why I said it. Because you're very You can solve any problem, but the emotionality of it has to catch up too.
Yeah. I lived for a guiver. I'm sure you did too. I lived for that shows because I was like, my favorite thing is to solve stuff and to figure it out. So we do have to lean into our emotions and we have to feel everything, but we can't get stuck there. That's the key.
Now, you can't wear it is part of your story, but you don't wear it as your story, which is an interesting distinction. Well, I'm so, I'm so glad to talk to you, Love you so much, have a great day, and thanks for doing this.
Of course, like I said, if you need a health collaborator. Okay, I'm here.
Awesome. Tell Kevin, I said hello.
Well, he sends his love too. He loves you.
Okay, have a gret bye bye. Marie is wonderful. She's beautiful inside and out. She is physically beautiful, she is beautiful inside. She is a really good person. She is genuinely interested in helping and loving and I respect that she's been in such a long term relationship with someone she's known since she's nineteen, who helped her take care of her family. She's been through so much and she's paying it forward, and I just really think she's wonderful.
So thank you so much for listening, rate, review, and subscribe, and have a wonderful day.