Maria Menounos Recalls How 'Overjoyed' Her Late Mother Was About Star's Surprise 2017 On-Air Wedding (Exclusive)

The TV personality and her husband tied the knot with an on-air celebration on New Year’s Eve in 2017

Maria Menounos had not one but two weddings — so double the special memories.

The television personality, 45, and her husband, Keven Undergaro, 55, first tied the knot on national television during Fox's New Year's Eve broadcast in 2017. They said "I do" once more, on Oct. 6, 2018 in Akovos, Greece, which is her father Constantinos Menounos’ hometown.

Reflecting now, Menounos jokes that it's hard deciding on a singular moment to dub her favorite from both celebrations: “I had two weddings, so can I have two?”

Ultimately, Menounos says her parents' participation in both events stands out. Back in 2017, Menounos surprised not just viewers with the impromptu on-air ceremony, but also her mother Litsa Menounos.

“My favorite memory was probably telling my mom and dad — my mom who had just been diagnosed with stage four brain cancer — that we were getting married live on TV in about an hour,” says Menounos, whose mom died in May 2021. “And she was just so overjoyed and started crying.”

Related: Maria Menounos Shares Homecoming Photo with Baby Athena as She Turns 5 Weeks Old: 'Sweet Welcome'

Menounos adds, “Maybe Keven launching into a Howard Stern speech for his vows when I wanted to kill him. I'm like, 'I cannot believe he's doing this.' That might be the other one because then eventually he turned into his real vows.” (Undergaro quoted an infamous moment from The Howard Stern Show during the ceremony.)

Undergaro’s vows were preceded by his public proposal on Stern’s SiriusXM radio talk show in 2016. While the couple had been together since 1998, Menounos wasn’t certain Undergaro was serious. Undergaro clarified, "This I wouldn't joke about."

He continued, "I love you so much and this show's meant so much to both of us. Why not make it official now?"

A year later, viewers tuned in to watch the couple wed, with help from their officiant, Steve Harvey.

Related: Maria Menounos Says Motherhood Is 'Heaven' After 'Manifesting' Daughter Athena (Exclusive)

Menounos also tells PEOPLE about the sentimental significance of the location of her second Greek wedding. "I've had beautiful memories from both weddings because I also got married in Greece in my dad's village, which was beautiful,” she recounts.

Menounos and Undergaro have been together for 25 years after first meeting on the set of his independent film when she was 19 years old. The two officially started dating in April 1998, but held off on tying the knot for nearly two decades.

The couple recently welcomed a daughter, Athena, in July 2023. Athena was born via surrogate, following Menounos’ decade-long journey to conceive.

The birth of their daughter followed the couple’s public fertility journey, which included IVF treatments beginning in 2012 and their public decision to move forward with surrogacy, as well as Menounos' additional health obstacles, including her 2017 benign brain tumor diagnosis.

Soon after the couple announced that they were expecting a baby girl, Menounos was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer.

The expectant mother previously told PEOPLE she was diagnosed in January, and she then underwent surgery to remove a 3.9-cm tumor. Menounos is currently cancer-free.

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Read the original article on People.