'Chasing Maria Menounos' star Maria Menounos: I'm trying to hold the fence that everyone's pushing

Chasing Maria Menounos, a new docu-reality series which will feature TV host Maria Menounos' personal life and how she makes untraditional choices, premieres tonight at 10PM ET/PT on Oxygen.


Maria, 35, is an entertainment reporter best known for her role as a host on Extra. She also appeared on Dancing with the Stars' fourteenth season with professional partner Derek Hough in Spring 2012 and the couple finished in fourth place.

Maria currently lives with Keven Undergaro, her boyfriend of almost 16 years, and her traditional Greek immigrant parents Costas and Litsa, who are pushing her to wed and have kids.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Maria and Keven talked about their new show Chasing Maria Menounos, which debuts on Tuesday night, March 18. Below is the first half of their interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

What do you make of the pressure to start a family that women face and that your parents are putting on you?


Maria Menounos: It's really tough because I feel like more than ever women are in the same kind of boat as me, where we really don't know when the right time is and we're really excited by our careers and, you know, we're wanting to prolong it more than ever.

And so, I definitely know I'm not alone because I talk to people about this all the time and everyone seems to kind of feel -- or not everyone -- but I feel like I meet more women that are confused about when to do this more than ever...

[It's something] that you don't know if you're ready for. And so, I'm really trying to like hold the fence that everyone's pushing. I mean like, "No, I'm not ready yet. Don't try to make me ready."

And so I definitely have moments where I feel like I'm going to throw the towel in and just do it for everybody, but then I realize that's not what I'm about and that's not how I do things. And then, you know, you have doctors that are scaring you and telling you that after 35 your eggs deplete and it's going to be so much harder to have kids and you could face bigger problems and miss your window.

And then, you know, you've got your parents who are like just dying for grandkids and dying for all these things. So it's really hard. I am completely torn and confused.


And it's definitely something we have to be aware of because I do feel like we could easily get wrapped up in our lives, in our careers, and forget to have kids. And that's something that I am aware of and I don't want to do. But I don't know when the right time is.

Keven, how do you feel about Maria wanting to start a family later in life?

Maria Menounos: He's happy.

Keven Undergaro: Oh please, it couldn't be any later for me because I'm going to have to be Mom and Dad, you know? That's the reality that we, there's no getting around it. And I know I could do that job and I actually believe I could do that job well, but I would like to wait a little longer before I have to. I'm good with that. Mom and Dad, not so good with that, but I'm good with that.

What have you learned, Maria, about balancing work and family from your friend Kim Kardashian and why?


Maria Menounos: I don't know if I've learned much yet. I mean, I've seen her once since she had Baby North. And, you know, she's been very busy and traveling and planning a wedding.

So I feel like I've learned a lot from Kim over the years -- just that she stays calm and that's like how I feel, like she balances everything. She tries to be a good friend to her friends and a good sister and family member and she just, she's a hard worker. So, if anyone can balance it all, I definitely think it's her.

You and Keven have been together for so many years. How do you keep your relationship hot and exciting?

Maria Menounos: Honey, do you want to answer that?

Keven Undergaro: Well, all of you, have you seen -- have you seen Maria?


Maria Menounos: It's ebbs and flows. It's ebbs and flows. I think you kind of, you know, when you're together that long, you have your ups and you have your downs. You kind of, you know, you go through things. But for us like, we just, we just try.

Keven Undergaro:  More ebbs for Maria and more flows for me.

Is there anything specific that you do to keep your relationship fresh?

Maria Menounos: You know, we just try to spend as much time together as we can. I think that that's the most important thing. So for Keven, you know, I've had people just be shocked that he'll be waiting in the car outside. You know, I'll be having a dinner meeting or getting my nails done or something, and he's just waiting for me because that's when we get to see each other, so.

Keven Undergaro: Yes. And if I'm in the car with the laptop, you know, I mean I can do my work in the car. And so that's how we've been doing it for years. That's how we've been spending time. So some of the most, some of my most fun memories with Maria are just, are running errands and driving her to different things.


I think, you know, Maria, I think recently what's been nice is we've been cuddling more. You know, if that sounds strange, but I think you kind of get away from that after the first five years and I think we've been doing that more. I've been making an effort to do that more. I don't know if you've noticed Maria?

Maria Menounos: I do. I love cuddling with you honey.

Keven Undergaro: Yes, I think it's nice. You know, I think it's nice. I think touching each other more, hugging, things like that, I think it's important. Because you can get away from that really fast between activities and events and career and I'm sure families too when you're taking care of kids and stuff. So it's just one thing I noticed in the last year, so I was like, "We need to get back into that," so we have been and...

Maria Menounos: Yes and we'll have an occasional beer around the house, which we never used to do. We'll like have a drink or something and just hang out.

Keven Undergaro: Yes. I always say we need to be drinking more but, because of all the pressure. But we also have this nice hot tub that I always say it's not a lot of money to get one. What a great way to rest.

We use it two or three nights a week and it's just a great way to loosen up your muscles and kind of unwind and talk about the day -- just decompress. I think that's really helpful too, Maria, you know, that we have that.


What do you hope viewers will learn by watching the show? Is there something you hope people will get out of it?

Maria Menounos: I feel like it will be interesting to see kind of fish out of water. You know, my family, we're a regular family kind of living in extraordinary circumstances.

I think it's nice to see a traditional Greek family at home. I think it's nice to see someone who made it in this town and, you know, and stayed in the same relationship they came in with. I don't think you see that very often. I think it's nice to see a man that's comfortable being the man behind the woman and supportive and takes, you know, great pride in that role. I don't know, Keven, what else can you think of?

Keven Undergaro: I think seeing our family. I think it's aspirational. I think a lot of people dream to do better in life and then it's nice to know that you can get there and you can have better things in life, but that when you do get there, you can still all be close and you still have the same problems that you had when you were a family back in the neighborhood.

Above is the first half of Maria and Keven's recent conference call with reporters. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski