E! said Monday that Menounos is leaving the network after three years. The cable network said it believes Menounos will tackle her health struggles ‘‘with the same fierce dedication she is known for.’’

“I’d been getting lightheaded on set and having headaches,” Menounos told People. “My speech had gotten slurred and I was having difficulty reading the teleprompter.”

In its latest cover story, People magazine reports that entertainment correspondent and Medford native Maria Menounos had a golf ball-size brain tumor removed in June, on her 39th birthday.

According to People, an MRI revealed that Menounos had “a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor that was pushing on her facial nerves.” All of this was discovered while the former Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood correspondent was caring for her mother, who is battling stage 4 brain cancer.


“I didn’t cry. I actually laughed,” Menounos told the publication. “It’s so surreal and crazy and unbelievable that my mom has a brain tumor — and now I have one too?”

Menounos told People that while she’s still healing from the seven-hour procedure, her surgeon was able to remove 99.9 percent of the tumor, which was benign.

“I don’t have my balance fully yet but as long as I’m holding on to Keven, I’m sturdy and fine,” Menounos said, referring to fiance Keven Undergaro, who popped the question in March after 19 years of dating.

“My face is still numb. This is something that takes at least a month of healing, but I’m getting stronger and stronger every day and I’ll be back to normal very soon.” (Kevin Slane, boston.com)

Kevin Slane can be reached at kevin.slane@boston.com.