In an emotional Instagram post, Maria Menounos opens up about the soundtrack that helped her get through her “darkest hours”

Former “E! News” anchor Maria Menounos recently stepped down from after revealing that she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

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Menounos shared a video on her Instagram from her June surgery to remove the tumor. She was quoting Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa of the famous “Rocky” series.

She explained that she requested “Gonna Fly Now” from the soundtrack as her theme music going into the surgery just before wishing Stallone a happy birthday.

Menounos shared the quote:

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

RELATED: Maria Menounos opens up about the heartbreaking reason she kept her brain tumor diagnosis a secret from her parents

Menounos’s devastating news came while she was still caring for her own mother who has cancer. The former anchor’s surgery was scheduled with her mother’s surgeon.

“I don’t have my balance fully yet, but as long as I’m holding on to Keven, I’m sturdy and fine,” Menounos said, mentioning her fiancé Keven Undergaro. “My face is still numb. This is something that takes at least a month of healing, but I’m getting stronger and stronger every day, and I’ll be back to normal very soon.”

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