Maria Menounosand Keven Undergaro’s love story goes way back.
“Keven has not been in the public eye ever. He’s never walked red carpets with me. He doesn’t go to events. People think he’s a ghost in this town,” Menounos toldParadeof Undergaro in 2014. “It’s been really hard for him because he loves his anonymity … But you can’t tell the story of our family without Keven.”
Here’s everything to know about Undergaro, from his life as a carnival worker to his success in Hollywood.
He’s an executive producer for television and film
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Shows discussed have included pop culture favorites such asKeeping Up with the Kardashians,The Real HousewivesandGame of Thrones. At one point, the network produced over 100 hours of weekly original programming and had a roster of over 200 hosts, of which Menounos was one of, in addition to being its co-creator and executive producer alongside Undergaro.
He was a carnival worker prior to making it in Hollywood
Undergaro grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Saint Anselm College. Prior to making it in Hollywood, he worked summers on the east coast as a “carnie” to make ends meet, a job that involved tremendous amounts of physical labor and long hard hours (seven days a week and 20 hours a day, to be exact).
“Summer months were spent on the road peddling fried dough and cotton candy with the likes ofjunkies, ex-cons, mobsters and side show freaks: characters answering to such names as Homeless Joe, Big Daddy Crackpipe and Lobster Boy aka the infamed Grady Stiles,” Undergaro wrote on his website.
He proposed to Maria Menounos on theHoward Stern Show
While Undergaro and Menounos began dating in April 1998, they didn’t get engaged until nearly 20 years later. Due to their shared love ofHoward Stern, hedecided to pop the questionon the show.
Undergaro proposed to Menounos during the reality star’s appearance on Stern’sSiriusXM radio showin 2016. At first, the red carpet host thought it was a joke, with Undergaro having to clarify that he was serious.
“This I wouldn’t joke about,” he said. “I love you so much and this show’s meant so much to both of us. Why not make it official now? Will you honey? Will you accept?” (Spoiler: She said yes.)
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“It was the coldest New Year’s Eve in a hundred years and, when exchanging vows, I was expecting Kev to say something romantic. Instead, he opened with a ‘baba booey’ to a confused Steve Harvey,” Menounos told PEOPLE, referring to the well-known catchphrase ofThe Howard Stern Show.
“He then recited an excerpt from an infamous video that Howard Stern producer Gary Dell’Abate made for a former girlfriend,” she continued, jokingly adding, “I’m a die-hard, forever Howard fan so even though the weather was like a ‘two,’ my wedding turned out to be a ‘noine.’ "
He starred onChasing Maria Menounos
In 2014, Menounos starred in her own eponymous reality showChasing Maria Menounos, which aired from March to May of that year. The show also starred her Greek immigrant parents and Undergaro who all lived under the same roof.
“The fact that Keven and I have been together for 16 years, we’re not married, we don’t have kids, my Greek immigrant parents live with us,“she said of the show’s premise. “They’re very traditional and hounding us for all of those traditional things. We live this kind of Hollywood fairy tale, but we’re not really Hollywood. There are a lot of different elements in there that were interesting not only to the network and the producers, but for us to share too.”
He and Maria Menounos welcomed their first child in July 2023
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The couple welcomed their daughter,Athena, via surrogate in July 2023.
“Maria is the happiest I’ve ever seen, and she and Kev have this parenting thing down. That little girl is the luckiest and she’ll know it every day,” a source told PEOPLE.
Over the years, Menounos and Undergaro have been candid about their fertility journey.
A year later, the couple announced that they wereexpecting their first child together.
Menounos and Undergaro first began considering surrogacy back in 2018 when formerE! Newscorrespondent sought advice from palKim Kardashian, who welcomed her daughter Chicago in January 2018 and son Psalm in May 2019 with the help of surrogates.
source: people.com
