Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg has revealed she suffered a nervous breakdown this summer that terrified her husband, Donnie Wahlberg.
The 54-year-old actress and podcaster shared the episode during a Tuesday installment of her show, describing how years of mold-related illness culminated in a crisis at a Las Vegas hotel. McCarthy, who was diagnosed with mycotoxin poisoning in December 2025, has endured 11 surgeries in 15 months and said she now lives with PTSD from the condition.
The breakdown occurred while she accompanied Wahlberg, 47, to the Aria Hotel for his New Kids on the Block residency this summer. She woke with slightly swollen eyes and immediately concluded mold was present.
“I woke up with my eyes like a little swollen, and I went, ‘There’s mold in this room,'” McCarthy said on her podcast.
“I literally went in hysterics, I was crying so hard and had a nervous breakdown in that room that my husband never saw me like this, ever,” she continued.
The former “Two and a Half Men” star traced her panic to a broader pattern of hypervigilance that had overtaken her daily life. The mold poisoning had left her with constant chalazions, tooth pain, skin rashes and food allergies before diagnosis. Even after entering remission seven months ago, she found ordinary environments overwhelming.
“Anywhere I’d walk, I’d have a histamine reaction. Everywhere I’d go, I’d panic that there was mold even if there wasn’t mold in the places,” she said during the Tuesday episode.
Her fears had become so consuming that routine activities turned impossible. She avoided Ubers because of fragrance Christmas trees, feared entering restaurants, and dreaded airplanes. The cumulative strain of surgeries and illness had left her terrified her body would fall apart again.
“Everywhere I’d go, I couldn’t get in an Uber, because of the fragrance Christmas trees, I was afraid to go into restaurants, the airplanes,” she said.
McCarthy’s coping mechanisms have grown unconventional. During an Oct. 29 podcast episode, she disclosed that she now sleeps in a tent in her backyard, unable to trust indoor spaces.
“Because I am paranoid now about basically sleeping anywhere, I live in a tent,” she said. “I’m not even joking.”
“That’s where this journey has brought me,” McCarthy continued. “After all of those surgeries, after being diagnosed with Mycotoxin poisoning, I feel a little bit sometimes crazy and like the walls are caving in and paranoid.”
She acknowledged she remains in what she called the “traumatic part” of her recovery. Despite these struggles, McCarthy indicated she is now focused on healing and slowly improving.
The couple, who married in 2014, currently have their Illinois home listed for sale at $2.8 million. McCarthy was previously married to John Mallory Asher until their 2005 divorce, while Wahlberg was married to Kimberly Fey from 1999 to 2008.
McCarthy first detailed her tent arrangement last fall, explaining the extreme measures her condition has demanded. Her mycotoxin diagnosis followed years of unexplained symptoms that baffled her and doctors alike.
Wahlberg’s New Kids on the Block residency in Las Vegas provided the backdrop for the breakdown that exposed the depth of her ongoing psychological toll. The singer and actor has not publicly addressed his wife’s account of the incident.
McCarthy continues to release new podcast episodes weekly as she documents her path through what she describes as a still-unfinished recovery.