Photo: Getty
Remember their reality show about their marriage?
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Feb 05, 2020
The Masked Singer returned this weekend right after the Super Bowl, and the contest is just as goofy and glitzy as ever. While audiences are trying to figure out the identities of the White Tiger, the Swan, or the Turtle, we're going to turn our attention to someone who has never hidden herself behind a mask: judge Jenny McCarthy.
McCarthy has been a fixture in pop culture since she was Playmate of the Year in 1993 and went on to host MTV game shows, her own talk show, a guest on sitcoms, and appear on dozens of other TV shows. She has also received enormous criticism for her suggestion that there is a link between vaccines and autism after her son's autism diagnosis in 2005.
These days, the 47-year-old mother is settled down with her second husband: singer and actor Donnie Wahlberg. The couple has been married for six years and, while they let it all hang out on TV, they seem to have a strong relationship.
Who is Jenny McCarthy's husband? read on for all the details.
1. Who is Jenny McCarthy's husband, Donnie Wahlberg?
McCarthy is actually married to someone who is just as famous as she is. Donnie Wahlberg is a founding member of New Kids On The Block, one of the most successful boy bands of the 1990s. His older brother actor, actor Mark Wahlberg, was also briefly a New Kid before taking his career in different directions.
Donnie Wahlberg still performs music but he's better known nowadays for his acting roles in shows like Blue Bloods and his family reality TV series Wahlburgers about the restaurant chain his brother Paul founded.
2. This isn't the first marriage for McCarthy.
McCarthy rose to fame as a Playboy Playmate in 1993 but went on to be a prolific media personality. In 1998, she married John Asher, and the two of them had son Evan together in 2003.
She wrote books about her pregnancy and early motherhood and spoke widely on her son's diagnosis with autism. In 2005, she divorced Asher. By 2006, she was publicly involved with Jim Carrey and their relationship lasted for five years, though they never married.
When they split up, friends said it was just due to the couple growing apart over time. “What they had was profound and real; it just wasn’t permanent,” said a source at the time. “They are both good people, and this has to be hard for both of them.”
McCarthy was a Playboy model.
3. Wahlberg was also married before.
While Wahlberg was making teen hearts throb as a member of boy band The New Kids On The Block, he was already dating Kim Fey. They got married in 1999 after eight years together and had two sons, Xavier and Elijah, who are now 19 and 27 years old.
They split up in 2008, and Wahlberg spent the next few years more focused on his career and his kids than on finding someone new to date.
4. The couple actually met on TV.
The pair first met while filming an episode of Watch What Happens Live in 2012, but sparks didn't start to fly until Wahlberg went on McCarthy's talk show in 2013. The chemistry was obvious to everyone, including McCarthy, who gave him her number afterward.
He waited two weeks to call her but once they started dating, they were all over each other. Literally, sometimes. Their habit of kissing in public is part of their image. They even ring in every year with a big kiss right on TV, as McCarthy hosts New Years Rockin' Eve.
It was no surprise to people close to them when they decided to get married in 2013. McCarthy shared the story of his proposal with audiences on The View.
"This weekend I was sitting with Donnie and he went into the other room and out came Evan with a card that said 'Will.' And he ran away and came back with a card that said 'You,' and I knew what was happening and I just started crying," McCarthy recalled. "And then he came out with a card that said 'Marry,' but it was spelled 'Mary,' and the last time Donnie came out with Evan and Evan's shirt said 'Me?' and he was holding the ring. He asked, 'Will you marry me?' I of course said yes."
They got married a few months later and Evan walked his mom down the aisle.
The couple got married in 2014.
5. Wahlberg gives truly unique gifts.
There are a lot of ways to show your love in a gift but Donnie Wahlberg managed to do it in a totally unique way. In a 2016 video, the couple was answering cute questions about each other. Most of it was normal stuff like "Who said I love you first?" (It was Wahlberg and he said it over the phone after he just performed a really great concert and was totally feeling the love.)
Then they asked McCarthy what was the most unusual gift he had ever given her and she said it was a dildo in the shape of his head. Wahlberg clarified a little and said it was a vibrator with his face on the top. They did not elaborate on how they use such a toy but, really, some things are better left unsaid.
6. What happened to their reality show?
Not long after they got married, the couple decided to lay it all out there and let a reality TV crew into their lives. They started filming Donnie Loves Jenny a few months after they got married, and their quirky antics were enough to keep their show going for three seasons.
Audiences enjoyed watching them navigate blending a family and moving to Chicago as well as a behind-the-scenes look at things like Wahlberg's New Kids On The Block reunion shows.
Unlike other couples whose reality shows and marriages crumble at the same time, Wahlberg and McCarthy put family first and shut down production before the show caused a problem. They weren't having trouble with their own relationship, mind you. It was McCarthy's son who was tired of the cameras.
"He doesn't want film crews in his house and I can understand that, especially those teenage years," McCarthy explained. "We put a pin in (the show) and put it on hold."
For now, the couple seems pretty happy with their current gigs. Wahlberg has been on the show Blue Bloods since 2010. McCarthy is in her third season as a judge on The Masked Singer and she has a popular show on Sirius XM.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.