{"id":6839,"date":"2024-04-19T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T14:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=6839"},"modified":"2025-03-26T00:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T00:38:16","slug":"jenny-mccarthy-says-she-prayed-to-god-before-meeting-husband-donnie-wahlberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2024\/04\/jenny-mccarthy-says-she-prayed-to-god-before-meeting-husband-donnie-wahlberg.html","title":{"rendered":"Jenny McCarthy Says She Prayed to God Before Meeting Husband Donnie Wahlberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6845\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6845\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2024\/04\/donnie-wahlberg-jenny-mccarthy-credit-kathy-hutchins-shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"jenny mccarthy donnie wahlberg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6845\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Hutchins\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jenny McCarthy wasn\u2019t looking for love when she met her husband, Donnie Wahlberg. During a recent appearance on \u201cThe Kelly Clarkson Show,\u201d McCarthy told Clarkson that prior to meeting her husband, she had just come off \u201ca slew of uncomfortable and not healthy relationships,\u201d prompting her to \u201creset\u201d her love life.<\/p>\n<p>She explained, \u201cI&#8217;m like, &#8216;I\u2019m really going to let the universe know I am shutting this down.\u2019 So, I stayed away from any blind dates or any dating, and I really focused on me because I\u2019m like, \u2018If I can upgrade me, then I\u2019m going to upgrade the people I surround myself with and who I bring into my life.\u2019 And I told God, I was like, \u2018Listen, don\u2019t bring me [a] half-baked guy.\u2019&#8221; Until then, she explained, she would always lower her standards to meet the men she was dating at their level but realized it was time for them &#8220;to meet me where I\u2019m at.&#8221; Due to her break from dating, McCarthy &#8220;really wasn\u2019t looking for anyone in particular&#8221; when she met Wahlberg.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, she had spent the prior year working on &#8220;letting go of the demons, recognizing why I went into those patterns&#8221; with men in the first place. She explained to Clarkson, &#8220;A lot of it had to do with self-love and loving myself and knowing I was good enough. Then the moment came, and Donnie was on a talk show I had. And I interviewed him, and I was like, \u2018Oh wow, he\u2019s funny.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s smart. Oh, he\u2019s hot. Oh, he\u2019s got a good butt. I like him.\u2019 The interview went from six minutes to an hour and a half. The audience and the producers were like, \u2018Uh, we gotta go,\u2019 and I\u2019m like,\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m in love.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NMxzy-X76wI?si=pj-eyYvJ9M6cY-0k\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While McCarthy ended up finding her partner in life, she explained the process taught her that although &#8220;as humans, we desire companionship&#8221; and &#8220;someone to share your love&#8221; with, she began to understand &#8220;you don\u2019t need a lover in your life to have love in your life.&#8221; Prior to marrying Wahlberg, McCarthy married actor John Asher from 1999 to 2005. Together, they share their son, Evan, who was born in May 2002. Elseshere in the interview, McCarthy admitted Wahlberg wasn&#8217;t always the New Kids on the Block member she had her eye on. &#8220;I grew up in a\u00a0very Catholic family, and I was very scared of anything bad. And Donnie seemed like the real bad boy growing up,&#8221; she told Clarkson. &#8220;He had the motorcycle. So, I kind of leaned more towards Jonathon. I was just like, I don\u2019t want to go to hell any faster than I already am. I\u2019m going to go for the good boy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Hollywood power couple eventually tied the knot in August 2014 and will be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary later this year.\u00a0 In an interview with Fox News Digital in January, Wahlberg spoke about their relationship, saying, &#8220;We&#8217;re proud of the fact that we&#8217;re a successful couple,&#8221; but they &#8220;kind of shudder at the term Hollywood couple.&#8221; He explained that being called a Hollywood couple implies they won&#8217;t last more than a few years together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jenny McCarthy wasn\u2019t looking for love when she met her husband, Donnie Wahlberg. During a recent appearance on \u201cThe Kelly Clarkson Show,\u201d McCarthy told Clarkson that prior to meeting her husband, she had just come off \u201ca slew of uncomfortable and not healthy relationships,\u201d prompting her to \u201creset\u201d her love life. She explained, \u201cI&#8217;m like,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":8785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,23],"tags":[740,653,737],"class_list":["post-6839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-relationships","tag-donnie-wahlberg","tag-healthy-marriage","tag-jenny-mccarthy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jenny McCarthy Says She Prayed to God Before Meeting Husband Donnie Wahlberg<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During a recent appearance on \u201cThe Kelly Clarkson Show,\u201d Jenny McCarthy shared that she wasn&#039;t looking for love when she met her husband.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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