Born in a working-class suburb of Evergreen Park in Chicago, Jenny McCarthy seemed to be worlds away from the glamor of Hollywood. Jenny, along with her sisters Lynette, Joanne, and Amy spent their time roaming around their neighborhood. Though her last name sounds Irish, Jenny’s ancestry actually includes German and Polish ancestry in addition to Irish.
Jenny’s parents were hard workers, her father, Dan worked as a steel mill foreman while her mother worked several jobs when she wasn’t taking care of the children. We’re sure that little Jenny never thought she would become an international star.
A Strict Upbringing
Considering Jenny’s risque claim to fame, it would be surprising to know that before she was posing in her birthday suit, she actually grew up in a very religious household. Jenny’s family were staunch Catholics, meaning the girls spent most of their lives attending church services and adhering to strict catholic values.
Her parents often worked multiple jobs in order to send the girls to a prestigious catholic school and Jenny joked that she and her sisters would “lay with rosaries and statues all over our bodies because we thought that would protect us from Satan!”
Dreams of Stardom
Though she lived in a rough neighborhood, Jenny always felt she would become famous. As a child, she used to watch the classic game show “Wheel of Fortune” with her mother. Her mother, Linda, would tell the young star, “ "You can have Vanna's job - go walk like that," while showing her how to walk and act like the television personality Vanna White.
Jenny would also fantasize about becoming a famous celebrity like Olivia Newton-John, even dressing up like country superstar Dolly Parton for Halloween. Little did she know that she would soon become just as famous!
Holy Dreams
It might come as a surprise, but as a little girl, Jenny McCarthy actually dreamed of becoming a nun! In an interview, she explained that she wasn’t allowed to have “Fonzie posters on the wall growing up so I was stuck with Jesus, so I couldn’t help but have a crush on him.”
Her devotion to her faith quickly changed, however, when she found out that being a nun would mean that she wouldn’t be able to have her own family. The actress joked, “I had to take off the habit and put on my push-up bra.”
Jenny Who?
While we all know her as Jenny McCarthy, the star almost went by a different moniker. In a 1998 interview on “The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder”, the celebrity revealed that as a child, she planned on using a different name to make it in Hollywood - Rhonda!
Thinking that her birth name Jenny wasn’t fit for a career in showbiz, the Chicago native began requesting that people refer to her as Rhonda. She told the host that her grandparents would even make out their Christmas cards to “Rhonda” and not Jenny!