Maria Menounos Talks 'Bittersweet' First Mother's Day with Daughter Athena as She Holds Space for Late Mom

Menounos shares her daughter with husband Keven Undergaro

Maria Menounos had a "bittersweet" first Mother's Day with her precious baby girl.

The Heal Squad podcast host, 45, enjoyed the holiday with her daughter Athena, 10 months, whom she shares with husband Keven Undergaro, posting a side-by-side comparison of herself with her daughter and her mom with a younger version of herself.

"Happy Mother’s Day to all moms, and our surrogate moms who step into those roles for us, and of course the actual surrogates who carry babies for us. ❤️," Menounos began her lengthy caption.

Noting that Mother's Day can be hard for so many — including Menounos, whose mom passed away — the new mom said that it's been harder now as she's reckoned with the fact that her mom will never meet her daughter.

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Related: Maria Menounos Shares Her Biggest Piece of Advice When Preparing for a Newborn

"As Athena has grown it’s almost gotten a little tougher because I so wish she was here. Luckily she left me with a beautiful surrogate mom in Violeta and now all the other mom energies around Athena," Menounos wrote.

"I know she orchestrated all of it. We will never get past it but we can work through it. Every morning Athena and I go to her church icon’s and give thanks to Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St Nectarios and thn we say hi to yia yia, my mom. I always tell her how much her yia yia loves her to keep her memory alive."

She continued, sharing how special her first Mother's Day was. "Now onto my first Mother’s Day myself, again bittersweet without my mom, not gonna lie I’ve been crying for days. It just hits me like a Mack truck. I guess they call it delayed grief but compound it with Mother’s Day and oof!"

"I will leave space for tears while also focusing on this incredible blessing God gave me. I love my little Athena so much it’s crazy. I can’t believe she turns one year old next month. Thankfully I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Grateful beyond for all the good and the bad that led me here. Happy Mother’s Day :)" Menounos ended her caption.

In January,  the former E! News correspondent joined Lo Bosworth, 37, on an episode of the reality TV personality's podcast Gut Feelings, opening up about her journey to motherhood.

"Well, I had a unique journey because I wasn't able to carry my baby," Menounos began. "So I had a surrogate."

"And also, I was going through this journey where I had my multiple organs severed, removed and was trying to heal from that. And so I wasn't able to have a baby shower, I didn't do any of the traditional things. Even so, I'm not really a traditional person, so it didn't matter to me."

Explaining that she got everything that she "needed to get," Menounos said that she enlisted help from her friends because as a first-time mom, she didn't know anything.

"It's so much work. So ask for help," Menounos said. "I told my friends, 'I don't need the baby shower, I don't need any, I just need your help. Help me get the things I really need that you guys have already vetted and know are great. Avoid me the stress of trial and error.'"

"'And can you help me one day, put it all together. We'll have wine, we'll have a cheese board, just please come help me.' And so they did and everything was set up and ready to go."

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