Jenny McCarthy is an American model, Playboy Playmate, television personality, actor, author, and activist who has a net worth of $25 million. Jenny McCarthy was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles.
That is her joint net worth with her husband, Donnie Wahlberg, to who she has been married since 2014. During the early stages of her career, Jenny McCarthy was arguably best known for posing nude for the cover of Playboy magazine.
As a result of this diversification, McCarthy has achieved considerable success in the entertainment sector throughout the years, both on television and in the film industry. She is arguably most known now for her vocal opinions on the vaccine topic, which she has expressed often.
Early Life
Jenny Ann McCarthy was born on November 1st, 1972, in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, to parents who were divorced at the time of her conception. McCarthy was from a working-class home where she was nurtured as a Catholic among three sisters.
She attended Mother McCauley Liberal Arts High School, which was an all-girls Catholic high school, and she was a member of the cheerleading squads of many other surrounding Catholic schools while there.
Afterward, she reported that she was tormented at school and that she felt like an outsider. Immediately following graduation, she went on to study for two years at Southern Illinois University. Jenny McCarthy is Melissa McCarthy's cousin, and she is also an actor herself.
Career
McCarthy was 21 years old when she was approached by Playboy magazine and offered $20,000 to photograph nude for them. She agreed to it. Even though thousands of other girls applied for the position, Jenny McCarthy was reportedly picked due to her “wholesome” Catholic image.
During the picture, she also donned her school sweater from her Catholic girl's school, and there was a distinct “schoolgirl” vibe throughout the entire shoot. McCarthy was raised in a close-knit Catholic town, and information about her involvement with Playboy quickly spread around the neighborhood.
Jenny McCarthy was scolded and threatened with everlasting damnation by a group of nuns, some of whom were related to her family members. Her home was routinely “egged,” and she was subjected to a great deal of bullying at school as a result.
But McCarthy achieved significant success as a result of his involvement with Playboy, eventually earning the title “Playmate of the Month.” As a result of this new position, I received an amazing $100,000 salary.
She relocated to Los Angeles with the assistance of Playboy to host one of their television shows, Hot Rocks. The attention of MTV was drawn to Jenny McCarthy in 1995 when the network wanted her to be the co-host of their new dating show, Singled Out.
In addition, she had a well-received performance at WrestleMania that same year. Jenny McCarthy's television career made a significant leap ahead following a modest role in the film The Stupids.
Jenny McCarthy is now a household name. She began by launching a talk show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, on Fox. As a result of the popularity and success of her comedy sketch show, NBC wanted to join in on the action and gave her a sitcom called Jenny, which premiered in 1997.
Jenny McCarthy continued to pose for Playboy throughout this period, and she made headlines in 1997 when she appeared on the cover of the magazine's September edition, which was published in September of that year.
The now-famous Playmate then turned her focus to the world of film, starring in BASEketball, a film that was universally panned for its cliched and basic premise. Following that, she starred in Diamonds, a horror-thriller released in 1998.
In 2000, she starred in Scream 3, which garnered poor reviews when compared to the first two films in the series. Later, in 2003, she appeared in Scary Movie 3 as a parody of herself.
The film Dirty Love, released in 2005, was her biggest flop, even though several of her films received unfavorable reviews. McCarthy's husband at the time, John Asher, directed the film, which garnered her three Razzie Awards: for Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture.
McCarthy was married at the time. Jenny McCarthy wrote, produced, and performed in the picture, which she also directed. The following few years saw Jenny McCarthy continue to work with Playboy on and off as her schedule allowed.
Her job for the magazine included not only modeling, but also working as a photographer. In 2007, she was the subject of an internet series titled In the Motherhood, which featured her. In 2010, she joined the ABC television network as a correspondent for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.
For the next ten years, she would appear on the special television broadcast with Ryan Seacrest on New Year's Eve every year. McCarthy rose to fame as the host of Love in the Wild, a reality/dating show that premiered in 2012. That same year, she also posed for Playboy for the second time, having previously stated that she wanted to do so one final time before turning 40.
In 2013, she joined the cast of ABC's The View as a new co-host. She had previously appeared on the show several times, and critics commended her for bringing a youthful and lighthearted attitude to the situation.
McCarthy had denied being fired from her show when it became evident that ABC did not intend to renew her contract in 2014. McCarthy has since stated that she was not fired from the show. Jenny McCarthy joined the panel of The Masked Singer in 2019 as a panelist.
The actress Jenny McCarthy starred as a guest star on several television episodes, including Stacked, The Drew Carey Show, Fast Lane, as well as Two and a Half Men, among others.
Aside from film and television, Jenny McCarthy has also appeared in two video games. Besides appearing in Red Alert: Command and Conquer 3, she also developed her own fitness video game, Your Shape Featuring Jenny McCarthy, which was released in 2012.
Writing
After making a name for herself in the entertainment industry, Jenny McCarthy published her first book, Jen-X: Jenny McCarthy's Open Book, in 1997, which became a best seller. Her journey from Playboy to “show biz” was chronicled in full in the novel.
Following that, a series of two volumes under the title Belly Laughs was published. Jenny McCarthy has written nine books throughout her career, the most recent of which being Healing and Preventing Autism, which she co-wrote with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel and was published in 2012.
She has written several books, the most recent of which being Bad Habits: Confessions of a Recovering Catholic, which was published in 2012.
Personal Life
Jenny McCarthy tied the knot with actor John Asher in 1999. They married in 2002 and had a son together, however they later divorced in 2005. Their relationship, according to reports, was strained as a result of their son's autism diagnosis. Jenny McCarthy tied the knot with actor and musician Donnie Wahlberg back in 2014.
Controversy
Jenny McCarthy has become somewhat of a controversial figure since 2007, primarily as a result of her stance on vaccinations and autism. She has stated that immunizations can cause autism in some children.
When she claimed that her son had been healed of autism in 2011, she was referring to a potentially dangerous procedure known as chelation therapy. McCarthy returned to the WWE in 2008 after a lengthy absence to express gratitude to fans for their support of Generation Rescue, an organization that believes vaccinations are a contributing factor to autism.