Maria Menounos is opening up about a terrifying medical emergency related to her type 1 diabetes.
The former E! News host shared a health update on Monday after dealing with a major equipment failure right before dinner. In an Instagram Story, she told followers that her primary insulin pen broke, and when she reached for her backup needle, she saw it was broken too.
“I don’t complain a lot about all of the health stuff, but this type 1 diabetes stuff is just not fun,” she said. “I’m about to eat this delicious sushi meal, and my insulin pen broke. And now my backup needle is broken too.”
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Type 1 Diabetes Requires Round-the-Clock Monitoring
Menounos received her type 1 diabetes diagnosis in 2022. According to the American Diabetes Association, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system mistakenly destroys the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. In simpler terms, her body cannot naturally process glucose (blood sugar), so she has to carefully calculate every meal and manually inject insulin just to stay healthy and alive.
After discovering that both of her pens had broken, Menounos had to contact Medtronic for an emergency replacement. Ironically, at the same time, her father’s continuous glucose monitor (CGM) alarms began sounding off.
“On with Medtronic to get a replacement and now dad’s cgm alerts are going off,” she wrote. “Diabetes can be very, very stressful and scary.”
A Terrifying Overnight Scare
In that same series of posts, Menounos revealed a much darker scare from earlier in the week. She shared that she nearly died in her sleep due to complications from the condition, though she did not share the specific medical details of what went wrong.
“Almost died the other night in my sleep so I’m a little over this,” she wrote.
Fortunately, her doctor called in a quick emergency prescription to a local CVS so she could replace the broken pens and manage her blood sugar that night. Navigating complex health battles is something Menounos has faced before, having survived a benign brain tumor in 2017 and a stage 2 pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2023.
