Shaina Hurley Reveals She Was Diagnosed With Cancer at 3 Months Pregnant

Love Is Blind’s Shaina Hurley may seem to have it all now—a smiling 6-month-old and a loving husband, Christos Lardaki—but her journey to a picture-perfect family was anything but easy.

Hurley recently shocked fans after revealing she was diagnosed with Stage 2 cervical cancer last year when she was just three months pregnant with her son. “I had no symptoms,” Hurley told People. “But later, the doctor called me and said the pap smear results had come back as abnormal, and they needed to get me in for a colposcopy.”

About a month later, she underwent the procedure, with a doctor immediately telling her, “It’s not looking good.” The test results, sent to Northwestern, confirmed the next day that she had Stage 2 cervical cancer. “I felt the fear creeping in, but I knew I couldn’t let the enemy take over my mind. I couldn’t go down that dark hole,” Hurley said. “I had to go into survival mode and tell God, ‘I trust you.’ At the end of the day, I just prayed for the best.”

For the next several months, Hurley fiercely advocated for both her health and her baby’s, navigating difficult medical decisions. Early on, doctors urged her to undergo a cold-knife conization—a procedure to assess how far the cancer had spread and remove as much as possible. However, the procedure came with significant risks during pregnancy.

“The problem was, I was pregnant. The cervix is what holds the pregnancy, and I was just around three months. I would most likely lose the baby,” Hurley explained. “At that point, I just couldn’t risk it.” At 22 weeks pregnant, Hurley opted for a laparoscopic surgery to ensure the cancer hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes.

“It hadn’t spread to the lymph nodes, but they still wanted me to do chemotherapy,” Hurley said. “I still had no symptoms, so I declined chemotherapy. It was hard for the doctors because I was their patient first. And I was a tough patient.”

At 37 and a half weeks pregnant, Hurley welcomed her son on February 12. “Meet our baby, Yiorgos David Lardakis. We’re in love,” she and Lardaki captioned a photo of their new family of three on March 6. Described as the “spitting image of his daddy,” the couple chose to name their baby Yiorgos in honor of Lardaki’s Greek heritage.

Just two weeks after welcoming Yiorgos, Hurley underwent an unsuccessful cold-knife conization. Six weeks later, a second attempt was successful. As of June 2024, Hurley is cancer-free. She will continue to visit the doctor every three months for check-ups. “We have to wait a year officially from the last surgery, just to make sure my body is okay,” Hurley said, adding that the couple hopes to try for another baby someday. For now, she’s focusing on being a mom and “taking it day by day.”

Hurley and Lardarki first revealed they were expecting on Instagram on August 31. “We are proud to announce Baby Lardakis coming soon,” the couple wrote next to a photo of the parents-to-be holding a sonogram photo.

“We feel so thankful and grateful that we have been given such a blessing. Our hearts are full!” Hurley told People. “We cannot wait to start this next journey of parenthood together and to meet this little soul!”

Hurley became a household name after she built connections with Kyle Abrams and Shayne Jansen on Love is Blind. After a short engagement to Abrams, Hurley exited the show and begin talking to Lardakis who she married after a year of dating in July 2022. Lardakis is already the father to a 3-year-old daughter he shares from a past relationship.