Health used to be something that people kept to themselves. But these days, people in the public eye are opening up more and more about their personal health journeys. Whether they are talking about a chronic illness, fertility challenges, or mental health struggles, people like Céline Dion, Simone Biles, and Selena Gomez have been discussing their health challenges throughout the years.
As conversations around health have evolved, so have the tools people are using to better understand their bodies. Everyone from biohacking enthusiasts to entrepreneurs to TV and film stars are turning to technology like wearables, advanced blood testing, and whole body MRI to gain personalized information about their health.
Related: What your bloodwork says about your health
In recent years, a number of media personalities and public figures have publicly shared their experiences with Prenuvo scans through interviews, podcasts, television appearances, or social media posts. Many have talked about their motivations behind receiving the scan, their findings, and how the experience influenced their approach to health.
Read on for a look at 5 public figures who have each been open about their Prenuvo experience. From seeking answers and peace of mind to monitoring existing health concerns, their stories reflect a growing interest in taking a more proactive approach to health.
1. Maria Menounos: An answer to unexplained pain
Up to 80% of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed in later stages, with the majority of patients diagnosed at Stage 4 when the cancer has spread to other organs. A diagnosis at this stage comes with a 5-year survival rate of 3.2%. And there are currently no routine screenings for this type of cancer, which experts often rank in the top of the deadliest cancers lists.
With the help of Prenuvo, Maria Menounous, a 48-year-old actress, TV host, and Emmy-award winning journalist, was able to help identify her own bout of pancreatic cancer at Stage 2. Years into trying to get pregnant, Menounos and her husband were just a few months away from expecting their first baby via a surrogate. At that time, she’d had months of unexplained pain. “The pain got progressively worse—sometimes it was so bad that I would buckle over in extreme pain,” she told NIH Medline Plus Magazine in an interview. She underwent an endoscopy, colonoscopy, and CT scan but was still unable to find the cause behind her discomfort. Then, an acquaintance urged her to get a Prenuvo scan, which helped identify a 3.9cm mass on her pancreas. A subsequent biopsy confirmed that Menounos had a rare Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.
Upon hearing about her diagnosis, Menounos remembers feeling numb. But catching it in time enabled her doctors to treat it. She underwent surgery to remove affected tissue and has since been declared “cancer free.” Catching her condition in an earlier stage has inspired Menounos to not only prioritize her own preventative health but to advocate for others to do so as well. She has also survived a benign brain tumor, which she had removed in 2017 and was later diagnosed with diabetes in 2021.
Menounos now talks about the importance of taking control of your health in her podcast Heal Squad. She has had follow up scans with Prenuvo and deems it “the scan that saved my life.” Menounos posted on Facebook in 2024 that “Prenuvo helped me detect my pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor early enough so I was able to receive treatment.”*
*A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Early detection outcomes depend on individual circumstances and follow-up care.
Related: Maria Menounos survives pancreatic cancer, detected early with Prenuvo scan
2. Tamara Judge: Peace of mind for a past health history
“I’m a chronic worrier, often mistaking a simple headache for something more serious,” says Tamra Judge, a cast member of the Real Housewives of Orange County. Her motivation to book a Prenuvo scan stemmed from concerns about her past health history and wanting to stay proactive about her future to live her life to the fullest. “I have been treated for stage 1 melanoma…,”* she shared on her Instagram. “It got me wondering if I had anything else growing in my body.”
Judge went in for her Prenuvo whole body MRI in May 2023. Her scan helped identify two small masses. Rather than viewing the scan as a one-time experience, she returned the following year for a follow-up scan to monitor the findings and stay informed about her health.
Judge admits to being nervous about going into the MRI machine. But she found her experience to be comfortable. “Their MRIs are totally radiation free, entirely painless, and open, meaning they are not enclosed at either end,” she shared on her Instagram. “This is perfect for me because I'm very claustrophobic.” She was anxious about her results, given her past health journey, but found that the scan gave her peace of mind. “Every day is a new opportunity to take control of your health,” says Judge.
3. Dionne Harmon: An unexpected diagnosis despite feeling healthy
While the rates of lung cancer have remained relatively stable in men, they’ve increased in women in the last 20 years. And many people with lung cancer don’t feel any symptoms until the disease is in later stages. This was the case with Dionne Harmon, an Emmy-award winning executive producer and president of Jesse Collins Entertainment. The 47-year-old, who alongside her husband, Jesse Collins, helps produce events like The Emmys and Superbowl Halftime Show, heard about Prenuvo when Harmon saw Kim Kardashian’s post about getting a whole body MRI.
She admits that at the time, she and her then fiance were concerned about their health and after hearing about Prenuvo, wanted to schedule a whole body MRI to get themselves checked out. “We both work hard and don’t always take care of ourselves the way we should,” she told People. “And sad to say, several of our friends have dropped dead of heart attacks because it’s a high-stress world.”
Her husband’s scan gave him peace of mind, with some informational findings suggesting he work on his posture. Harmon’s scan helped identify a large mass on her right lung that required further imaging and discussing next steps with a healthcare provider. She went to see a pulmonologist who ordered a chest X-ray, then sent her to a radiologist for a PET/CT scan. After the follow-up testing, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer.
As a non-smoker, Harmon was shocked to hear of the diagnosis. She learned that while many people think of lung cancer as a smoker’s disease, that’s far from the truth. “Most lung cancers are found by accident in the non-smoking population,” she said. Harmon underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which was performed with the assistance of a controlled robotic arm. She also underwent drug therapy that targeted her tumor mutation.
Harmon, who is in remission, recalls her pulmonologist saying, “‘If you had found this six months later, we’d be talking about how to make the rest of your life comfortable.”* Following her treatment, she has been encouraging her friends to seek out proactive healthcare of their own. “All of my friends have now gotten Prenuvo,” she tells People. “Most people have been great, and a couple have found things that they should deal with and they’re in front of it, so that’s been really amazing.”
*A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Early detection outcomes depend on individual circumstances and follow-up care.
Related: Lung cancer in non-smokers is on the rise
4. Mary Bonnet: An informational finding that filled in the gaps
Fans who watched Selling Sunset saw realtor Mary Bonnet suffer a devastating miscarriage on the show. She had been trying to get pregnant with her husband for some time and had dealt with unexplained infertility. Then, she did a Prenuvo scan "just to make sure everything in my body was going well" and received informative health insights. She was told she had a septum in the middle of her uterus, which her doctor said may explain her past history of miscarriages. “They never told me. Through IVF, through everything. And it would basically prevent me from carrying a baby full term,” she shared on the NotSkinnyNotFat podcast.
Bonnet’s scan also helped identify findings suspicious of a ruptured breast implant*—even after having recently had her implants checked. “I had no idea,” she said, in an interview with her plastic surgeon’s office. She remembers feeling “tired a lot” but noted that her implants looked normal so she had assumed they were fine. “And actually my two co-stars both had the same thing because we both had 20-year-old implants and theirs were ruptured too,” she said. This includes Chryshell Straus, who also found a ruptured implant during a whole body MRI.
*A Prenuvo scan is not a substitute for dedicated breast imaging and is not intended to serve as diagnostic or pre-surgical imaging for breasts or breast implant ruptures.
After dedicated breast imaging and consultation with a plastic surgeon, Bonnet confirmed the ruptured breast implant and had the leakage cleaned out of her body and her implants replaced. “They look amazing and they are nice and fresh now,” she says. The findings also gave her information to consider, with her doctor, as she evaluated future fertility options, including the possibility of a uterine septum removal procedure. Bonnet’s experience has caused her to be an even bigger advocate for staying on top of your health. “I promote getting a full-body scan to anybody I can,” she said in an interview with Women’s Health in 2024. “It literally changed my life.”*
*A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Early detection outcomes depend on individual circumstances and follow-up care.
5. Kim Kardashian: A hidden condition during a stressful time
Brain aneurysms may be more common than people think, with an estimated 1 in 50 Americans living with an unruptured one. And statistics show that 1 brain aneurysm ruptures every 18 minutes. But most brain aneurysms are silent and often do not carry symptoms until they grow large enough to press on nerves or rupture. This was the case for Kim Kardashian, who went in for a Prenuvo scan after hearing several friends share their experiences with the scan. “It has really saved some of my friends' lives,”* she posted on Instagram in August 2023.
*A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Early detection outcomes depend on individual circumstances and follow-up care.
“I did a Prenuvo scan, and they called me today, and they’re like, 'Everything looks great. But you have an aneurysm in your brain,'" Kardashian said on a past episode of The Kardashians. The reality star/entrepreneur recalls being told the aneurysms that her Prenuvo scan helped identify had likely been there for years.
After receiving the aneurysm findings her Prenuvo scan helped identify, Kardashian saw a brain surgeon for additional testing. When asked if she was at risk of it rupturing, Kardashian was told by her brain surgeon that stress could be a factor. In addition to dealing with her relationship fall out with Kanye West, she was in the middle of "studying 10 hours a day" for the upcoming bar exam, and preparing for a court case. She had also been experiencing a flare up of psoriasis at the time, which she attributes to the chaotic phase of life she had found herself in. Kardashian was grateful her whole body MRI helped identify the condition so she could receive further evaluation and monitoring by a neurology team.
Related: Detecting aneurysms with a Prenuvo scan
These days, more and more people are looking for ways to better understand their health. As public figures increasingly share those experiences, they help to normalize conversations about prevention and proactive healthcare. From heart rate variability and body composition to genetic risk factors, there is growing interest in tools that can provide a deeper understanding of health. And whether someone chooses imaging, bloodwork, wearables, or other forms of health tracking, the goal is often similar: to better understand their health and make more informed decisions about the future.
Looking for more firsthand experiences? Explore additional member stories on the Prenuvo Stories page. To learn more about the benefits of a Prenuvo Membership, book a call with a member of the Patient Services Team.
