Red Carpet Confidential: Jenny McCarthy Reveals How She Snagged NKOTB's Donnie Wahlberg
Jan. 16 2014, Published 7:24 p.m. ET
Jenny McCarthy hasn’t had the easiest of love lives, but her experience has made her wiser in matters of the heart.
Photos: Jenny, Donnie and More Hot New Couples of 2013
The View co-host, 41, wed actor/director/writer John Asher in 1999 before the pair, who are parents to son Evan, 11, called it quits in 2006.
Next, she dated Jim Carrey from 2006-2010.
Then, she took a step back from the dating scene before finding love again with New Kids On The Block singer and Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg, 44. The two recently made-out on camera during New Year’s Eve festivities in Times Square.
What has been her biggest lesson in love?
“I came to realize I don’t need a lover in my life to have a love in my life,” she tells me during the Daily News Readers Care to Feed the Hungry Canned Food Drive event presented by City Harvest and Cold-EEZE Cold Remedy and hosted by FDNY. “I was in search for a lover for so long, and this past year, before I met Donnie, I literally went on a year hiatus of dating. I said ‘I’m just not going on any dates.’ I’m going to figure out something."
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OK! Exclusive: Sherri Shepherd On Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg's Relationship
She continues, “I had a shift, I had a realization of changing the pattern, and literally, I was sitting in my bedroom thinking about love, and I realized ‘what am I doing? Why am I thinking I need a lover?’ I don’t need a lover to have love in my life. I love myself. I love my son. I love my sisters. They love me. Why do I think I’m lacking anything when it’s all right here? That helped me.”
Taking time off from the dating scene is just what she needed.
“I think it makes you reset,” she says. “I think you don’t have time to think and reflect and hindsight and look at lessons and look at patterns when you jump into the next one, and that’s what I did. That’s what I realized I needed to do.”
Watch: Jenny McCarthy Dishes On Her Favorite Beauty Product
Pick up the OK! on newsstands now for Jenny’s OK! Interview. What do you think of her romance with Donnie Wahlberg? Tweet us @OKMagazine.