This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas today, I'm Solow. For now I will have a guest host, but it is not the beautiful, talented Elz.
She is.
Well, I'm not going to tell you what she's doing. It is amazing and beautiful. Guys, When I tell you, this woman has the heart the size of the state of Texas. What she is doing, it's her story, so I want her to tell it and it will be a part of our podcast. We'll talk about it next week. But it is a beautiful thing. I can't wait for her to get home. But she has gone this entire week, and it is true, when Elz goes, it's like I've lost ten people in this house because that's how many
personalities are gone with her. So the light has gone out of the house here in Austin. But she will be back next week. But in the meantime, I am bringing in some light a beautiful woman. And I mean that in a holistic, spiritual, charismatic, intelligent way. Maria Menunos, host of her own amazing podcast, Heel Squad, joins me to try and fill those shoes of Elsie. Maria, thank you so much for being here.
I will do my best.
I know you will. You're a pro. I know that we have worked alongside each other for years and years and years, but you have also just survived the big LA. What are they are they calling it the hurriquake, the hurricane earthquake.
It sounds like Sharknado to me.
It really was Hurricane twenty twenty three.
Oh, you know, it was great. We were making some you know, renovations in the back guesthouse and the yard was a mess, and I was like, we have a hurricane coming. We gotta, you know, get everything cleared. It brought to higher ground so the whole place got pristine just because of that. So I was so happy. It was all good.
We just had one blow through Texas as well, kind of a tropical storm, bunch heavy rain and all that. And someone I heard, one of the kids in the neighborhood asking if they were going to be out of school because they heard all the LA kids got to take a day off of school because it rained really hard. I said, no, that doesn't happen anywhere else. I appreciate
you filling in. You have a beautiful, wonderful story, a beautiful wonderful family, your husband Kevin, your daughter Athena that I think is two months now, Yes, and I love it. You said you just got back from the doctor's office, the pediatrician, and you were gushing about Athena because she is top percentile, ready to go, ready to go to college. I believe was what the doctor said.
Yeah, we're thinking right next year, she's going to college. No, it's funny. She was a big baby when she was born. She was eight pounds thirteen ounces. She was like, I don't know, twenty one inches long or something like that. So when we went to the doctor to she was like, oh, my goodness, she's she's tracking like a four month old. I was like what, She's like, yeah, she's a big girl. So she's almost fourteen pounds, she's twenty four inches long. Oh, two months already teething.
And it's funny because.
We're all like, oh, we see teeth, and everyone's like, are you crazy. I'm like, no, she's teeth. And I'm like, look, she wants to talk. You can see your little tongue and everyone's like what, And I'm like she's advanced.
I always love that, you know, like as a parent, there's always the moments, no matter what it is, we find a way to like, you know, yeah, be very braggadocious about our kids.
Totally. Oh no, she's so they're all advanced.
We should be. We should be.
It's just fun, you know. The nurse was like, she's so advanced in the very beginning, so we stuck with that. Everything she did was like, well, she's advanced.
Of course, of course she's speaking French. I mean she's two months old. She's going to be walking at three months? Is the to the contrary? I remember my mom told me it was I'm not sure if it was my brother and myself who wasn't walking early enough, you know, at eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen months, which is typically when the child starts walking. And the pediatrician looked at my mom and said, Mary Beth, relax, I've never known a
child to go to kindergarten without learning to walk. It's okay, they're going to figure it out.
Well, I was advanced. I walked it eight months, but I also had cooked legs, so I was forrest gump. I had to wear leg breezes. Oh, really poor shoes. So I'm looking at her and I'm like, oh, she's going to walk it like six months for sure.
That is funny. Well, a beautiful Athena. I appreciate you taking time away because I know you have to get back to her, But I want to run through what's going on in the world, because obviously you are. I'm a baby world, so you got nothing, baby brain? Are you a Swiftie?
I love Taylor Swift. I'm not a big like music person. I listened to a lot of Greek music and like Italian music.
And you come from a very Greek family.
Yeah, but I love Taylor and I love you know, listen to Kiss one O eight and listen to stuff.
I know. She just left LA and it was like a thing. I actually made a joke. Are you even in La right now? If you're not posting from the Taylor Swift concert? Because it seemed like everybody was at this show, which is amazing, which goes.
To into one before she was amazing.
She yes, she puts on unbelieving And obviously the success of this tour, the Eras tour, has been amazing. But the big headline that just came out was that she reportedly declined to headline the twenty twenty four Super Bowl. NFL clearly came after her and said, would you please be our halftime show, the coveted halftime spot, and she said no for a couple of reasons. I think logistics wise, she is going to be doing this eras tour overseas.
I think she may be in Japan around then. Not that there aren't jets that she owns that could fly her back for that one show, but she has declined because the other thing, and I don't know if you know this, you don't get paid for that halftime show.
Oh yeah, I did hear that. I think j Loo said that.
It is essentially an honor, which is hysterical because you are helping them make hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is an honor for you to play the halftime show. And I think she's like, I'm good, thank you.
Yeah, I got plenty of money. I don't need your advertisement.
Right hawking Pepsi at their halftime show. But it is amazing she has gotten so big. There was who was it? Billy Joel said that he hasn't seen anything like this since Beatlemania, the mania that's surrounding Taylor Swift, it is pretty wild.
Wait, so is she bigger than Beyonce?
I think she's beyond eclipse to beyond say, no way, I mean definitely in money, definitely in tours and money she's going, Maria, She's going to have at the end of this, we'll have the biggest, highest earning, largest tour in the history of music, beating Elton John's Goodbye Tour. Yes, it's yeah, not even close. This woman is absolutely a force of nature. So it's it's pretty wild. So no, but no, no halftime show unless Pepsi wants to really pony up some cash to get Taylor Swift back.
Hey, maybe she'll set the new precedent where people do have to get paid exactly.
Someone's getting slightly nil deals in college football. Enough of the free ride. Did you watch the two documentaries on the fire festivals?
Were great?
So great? Well you know that. So the Billy McFarlane guy who did all that, you know, he went to jail. He was sentenced to six years and he got out for good behavior. I'm not sure what that is, but he came out firing pun intended. Maria he's selling tickets and spinning Fire Festival too.
I heard because Kevin told me this. I was like, you know, people have no shame. They just by the way. He's figuring it out because he's got a popularity. Now, he's got a name that people recognize.
If you don't know. So the Fire Festival was this not the worst idea. It was just the most epic fail of execution in the history of all ideas. Apparently he wrote down this fifty page maybe manifesto you could call it, of how to do it right this time. So he's coming out ready to go with Fire Festival too. I agree with you, buyer, Beware what performers, what manager
is going to say? Yeah, definitely, I'm going to have imagine Dragons sign up for this one or Maroon five real quick, that's going to happen.
Yeah, but watch somehow this guy's going to figure it out, Chris, and it's going to be huge next year.
He'll get them fire.
She will be like, let's just see if he can do it. I bet anything. You know, it's not a lot of time to figure it out in jail.
I see another documentary in his future. I know you're big on love and you're big on relationships, and obviously we know who Jennifer Aniston is. She came out in an article recently where she said it's still a challenge her quote to be in a relationship because of her parents' dynamic.
Jennifer went on to say she was getting candid in this that her relationships, her parents' relationship, affected the way that she approaches her her own and that she's opened up about the impact of her mother and father's dynamic, and that she was kind of alone a lot and she doesn't see a relationship that she can give to and that she kind of just likes her own way and wants to do things make herself happy and doesn't
want to give up on that. I found it was very I don't know if sad's the word, but unfortunate to have this beautiful person on so many levels. And as she even said, I'm so successful at everything else, but I'm not successful at this.
I really love her. She's so lovable and warm.
It's you know, America's sweetheart. It's Jennifer Aniston. It's like Julia Roberts. But you know what I find interesting is and I guess what I would tell her is if she was sitting on this couch or anybody else. A relationship and love is not about losing yourself, at least it shouldn't be. You are not losing yourself as much as you're getting a value out in your life. You know, for you, it's Kevin, for me it's Lauren. I don't feel like I've lost any of my individuality. I don't
feel like I've lost any friends. I haven't. I think I'm probably more fun than I ever was because Lauren's so damn fun. But I don't feel that that's a relationship. And what she's kind of explaining sounds more toxic to me of if I'm in a relationship, I will lose myself and.
I well, she's got a lot of trauma obviously that she's I'm sure worked through and been working on. But maybe she needs some EMDR. And that is EMDR. Is this really amazing therapy that they use on like returning vets for PTSD, which she probably has with her her family dynamic, and it's you know, Harvard's done so many studies on it. It's pretty amazing. You know, maybe that would help her because you're right, like it is supposed
to be something you don't have to give yourself up for. However, we as talent soak up a lot of attention and have a lot of needs and are used to having a lot. So maybe she needs like a good dentist.
I was gonna say, I was before you just kind of said that. I was saying my next bit of advice would be find someone out of the industry. Go find just a normal, you know, edge fund manager. It is I it is, you know. I think Charlie's their own said that one time of like, I'm single, I would love to date, but no one's going to approach me. And it's amazing. You would think, oh my gosh, come on,
Charlie's Jennifer Aniston. Yeah, but it's actually not that easy because most people will not approach them, and if they do, they don't approach them in the right way. Genuinely. Yes, you know.
Well, also, there's so many things about interacting with the celebrity that a non celebrity would never know, and there's so many boundaries you really have to be careful not to cross. And then it's just it's it's a really hard thing for someone who's not in the loop. To really understand how to engage with people properly, and so we can't just she can go to like a small town and do her thing for a little bit, or she can't stay there. She can't, you can't, you know,
I don't know. It's really hard to explain.
Well, Taylor Swift is a great example. Not to go back to Taylor. I am a swifty by the way you can tell. But she went to a wedding I think it was this week or maybe last week, and it got out in this small town that she was there. When she walked out, everyone within twenty towns was there, mobbing the place.
Yeah.
That is the kind of like moth to a flame attention you get when you were in.
The wedding, right and then ps. There's also like I've been in situations where I've gone to weddings and once people got the booze in them, that's when they started taking potshots. Yeah, oh you think your fancy. You know, they're insecurities and inadequacies come out, and then they have to hurt you because they're feeling lesser for some reason, and so the pot shots would come out. And Kevin's like, you can't do this. Anymore, And I was like, why
would people be like this? Like I have no problem obviously, and I'm not Jennifer Aniston, but like we live in a small town in Connecticut. I have no problem. I go to the local pie's place, we have great time. Like I I am okay mixing in those arenas. But sometimes you get people who don't know how to be and they are very inappropriate and I'm kind, and so it can be tough.
I always said there was this there's this point in the night where everybody goes from being super sweet and nice to that crossing the line touchy feely or saying stuff that like the filter is off, and maybe it's just their true feelings, but you know I and it's for me. It was always guys because of the show I hosted for twenty years. Obviously a lot of women watched it, and naturally they would just come up and
kind of start talking. It was the icebreaker, and guys always took that the weird or the wrong way as if they were threatened by me, which I couldn't be less threatening as a human being, but guys would just get a little insecure, and so they would start popping off or whatever, And typically I would just immediately diffuse it by buying him a drink, trying to buy everyone a drink or whatever. But you just have to remove yourself.
And oftentimes you would be at a big event or somewhere and you realized at ten thirty at night, you're back in your hotel room while everybody is still down partying, because you just kind of had to get away from it all. And it's weird you're sitting there alone, going, wait, why am I not down there? Yeah, and again times ten or times one thousand, is Jennifer Aniston or Charlie's
or anybody else trying to live that life? So but I agree, I would say if she can a what you're kind of explaining as a toxic relationship, don't lose yourself, find someone who's a value add and maybe get out of the industry. Yeah, this next story, I lest your mom, and due to a brain cancer. In twenty twenty one, Olivia Newton John obviously passed away as well, and her
daughter Chloe revealed that she has had health issues. And this is something I know that you've talked about caretakers having health issues for after the person that they were taken care of actually passes away or is deathly ill. And that's something you can relate to, and it's something you talk about a lot.
Yeah, I totally understand that there are actual statistics about caregivers dying before the patients they take care of. So, for example, and I have this in my phone because it's just so alarming to me, there are forty three million unpaid caregivers, mostly women. Stanford found forty percent of Alzheimer's and dementia patients die before the patient that they're
caregiving for. And I also know that the clinic that I would take my mom to in Mexico was founded by a woman who got cancer taking care of her mother with cancer. Caregiving is excruciatingly hard and it really does take its toll on your body. And by the way, I had help, and it was still a lot, So I can I can totally understand that.
And that's what you know. Chloe so Olivia Newton John obviously she died of breast cancer last off ugus and she said, since my mom's passing and the year and a half with her going through cancer, I've not been okay. I have forgotten to return commitments and I have been neglecting myself. One of my mom's biggest messages was to take care of you. If you don't take care of you, you can't give your full capacity of love, wisdom, kindness
and power to everyone else. She got lost in all this, and that is something that as people that are listening to this, obviously, it's something we can all relate to that have lost a loved one and watch someone die of cancer or whatever the illness was. It is hard to say, take care of you, but it is amazingly important to do so.
Yeah, but there's no roadmap for that. First well, there's like no roadmap for how to handle any of this. I thought I was taking care of myself, right. I had a nurse helping me with my mom, and I had my husband and my dad, And there were moments where I took a break, yeah, and went to the other coast and caught my breath. I mean, I did all of the things that I thought were going above and beyond what normal people would do in terms of taking care of you, and you know, whatever it was.
I get a massage where I did all those things and I still ended up with so much.
So do do you have any advice. What's our takeaway to Chloe or the Chloe's of the world is we're all going to face this probably at some point in our life.
Yeah. I really think first of all, we have to fix the caregiving situation in our country because nursing homes are really really rough for people. Caregiving at home is excruciatingly expensive. Even people who have a lot of resources can't afford it. That's how hard it is. And so we have to figure out how to get care giving covered by insurance. It just has to happen. It used to happen. Used to pay for an extra insurance so when you got older, you got sick, you would be
able to have care at home. Now in New York, I remember seeing the commercials where they will advertise if you want to stay home and take care of your family member, they'll pay you to stay home and take care of your parent or something. Because there's forty three million unpaid caregivers. That means now you're already going broke because of whatever the illness is, and your health insurance is only covering so much. But now you also have to quit your job to take care of your family member.
So we have to fix that. But it's awareness, it's really understanding how sick you can get by taking care of someone. It doesn't mean we're not going to do the job. We're going to do the job. We're going to take care of our moms and our dads and our family members. But just being really aware and cognizant of taking care of yourself nutritionally and emotionally, making sure
you're talking to somebody getting those feelings out. You know, we talk about like the fascia in your body really stores a lot of emotions, so it's like doing some like fascia work and all kinds of things. There's so much stuff you can be doing, so you have to really be aware.
So maybe the takeaway be mindful of yourself. But also if you know someone who's going through this, a friend, a loved one, be mindful of them and what they're going through and try and take extra care of I know we all think, oh, I'm sorry, Maria about your mom, but think deeper about their health and things maybe you can do to take care of them, and whether it's bringing them a very healthy meal or getting them away to get them whatever it is, maybe just think about their health.
Yeah, the worst thing I saw is when people like, let me know if you need anything, and like, I'm never going to ask you.
Yeah.
So it was the people who just showed up at the doorstep with food. It was the people who said, you know, well, a lot of people didn't do this, but it would be my dream for other people, at least when something's happening, go see them, ask them what they need in person. They're going to know that you're being genuine because you actually showed up in person. Take their kids out for them, give them a break, send them to a massage, send them away to a day spa. Do whatever you can.
Be proactive and do it. Yes, don't wait for someone to ask. Nobody's going to ask.
No one's ever going to ask.
Yeah, that's great advice. All right. I want to end on a little lighter note. Well, I think literally and figuratively this is a lighter note. And I'm not sure it's okay. Jna del Rey is getting slammed for wearing a white dress to a wedding. Oh so, and I also think she was wearing she.
Couldn't have did that. Once I wore like a it was like a smidge off white to Kim Kardakin's wedding. I looked back and I was like, oh, did you did you actually pay attention Maria?
You did you catch any crap for it?
Oh?
No, no, you know what?
Oh I think we were supposed to.
Oh it was like a like a white Okay. So that's this thing, because I just recently looked back at the pace.
She's like, Mario, what were you thinking everybody was wearing white? I think it was black and white.
Okay. So I will say there are themed weddings where it's like, hey, everybody were on a beach where white or like you said, maybe Kim Kardashian's wedding, which I was not invited to, But great wedding, drop, you know, wear black and white. Okay. So but if it's just a typical wedding, like I don't know if yours was typical. You got married in Times Square by Steve Harvey, right, yeah, I mean that's not typical.
Married in Greece in my dad's village. So we did two weddings that year.
So what was the wedding like in Times Square with Steve Harvey officiating?
Amazing the best?
I love Steve Harvey. By the way.
Yeah, he's awesome, and uh, we surprised my parents. It was soon after my mom had been diagnosed of the brain tumor, so it was like their dream. And so we did it and everyone was invited. But I didn't have to do with anybody, and.
You didn't have to clean up the Times Square afterwards. I would just say rule of thumb, don't don't wear white to somebody's wedding unless you've been asked to or maybe it's been pre approved. But if you have to even go to the bride and say, hey, do you mind if I wear this white dress, You're already being a pain in the butt. Don't be a pain in the butt to the bride.
Get another color, a long white dress.
No, I look, I don't think it was a flowy dress.
I want to see because honestly, she's a star. She should be able to show up in anything she wants. They're lucky she showed up.
This was Margaret Qually's a wedding to Jack Antonov over the weekend in New Jersey, and apparently a lacy pink and white mini dress. So mini dress, so spink and white.
So that's the thing is think of Lona del Ray as the gateway drug to get us to the conversation of the white dress, because I also think she had questionable footwear on, like a croc type sandal, which some people are defending because they're saying, well, she was going to be dancing on the dance floor, why not wear comfortable shoes.
I wore boots in her my wedding dresses.
I would say this though, as someone who's about to get married, and Lauren will be wearing a white wedding dress.
But you guys haven't gotten married yet. No, Oh my god, I didn't know that.
I know we're not as long as you and Kevin went, but we're getting there. Okay, how long because you and Kevin were together for how long before?
I mean it was like twenty years I think when we got married.
That's impressive. No, it's only five. We just celebrated our fifth anniversary. So that's nothing. That's nothing.
That's nothing. Yeah, we waited a long time.
And so she's going to wear white, and Lauren has kind of curated what she wants people to wear anyway, because that's Lauren the producer. But if someone showed up in a white flowy dress, I just think that would be a fashion.
But I'm looking at what Lana's wearing here. It's white and pink, it's a little summer dress, and she's wearing comfy footwear. Good for her. I don't disagree with the comfy footwear.
So we're going to say on the Maria Minuno scale, not offensive. I'm not offended now, not offendive, but she could do better with the footwear.
I like them. They're comfy.
Oh you do like them.
If you see what I wore under mind, I wore literal boots. We went to pay Less, I bought the wardrobe girl bought twenty dollars cowboy boots, little ankle ones under my dress in Times Square because my friend wanted me to wear sandals. I go, are you high? So cold and below? I'm not doing fashion for you. I'm going to be warm.
It's going to be frizy in Greece.
I just knew it was going to be on my feet all the time. So we put boots, you know, comfy like ug like boots under my wedding dress. No one ever knew, and I'm very grateful I did it, and.
I love that you guys went twenty years before you got married.
Yeah, here, we needed to make sure I was the one.
I think vice versa. That's how that goes.
It went so long and then eventually like crisis had to happen for us to be like, you know what, let's do this.
Marie Minus. I appreciate it. I thank you for filling in for Lauren Zima and Hope.
I was able to bring some light.
You brought a lot of light. I got all the melatonin I need out of this, and my circadian rhythm is beaten to the drum. But more importantly, I want to continue this discussion. Let's get together. I would like to have another discussion because I want to get into your podcast, Heel squad, what that does, how that started, the meaning behind it, obviously all of your health stuff, your mom and where you are now on this journey,
because that is an incredible story. So for those of you that know Maria and you want to hear that, we are going to add that podcast as well. If you don't know Maria, you need to hear this story because she just has such great perspectives, such great light and knowledge on all of this as she has lived it. As you say, walk a mile in somebody's shoes. She's walked six miles, so I look forward to that conversation coming up very soon with you. Thank you fun, and
in the meantime, thank you for listening. Always appreciate it. As I said, LZ will be back next week. In the meantime, my thanks to Maria Minunos of her podcast Heal Squad. Give that a listen. In the meantime, I will talk to you very soon because we have a lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.