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The Truth About Jenny And Melissa McCarthy’s Relationship

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Two women share a last name, a childhood in Illinois, and a Hollywood career path that couldn’t look more different — and for years, tabloids have tried to turn that into a feud.

Jenny McCarthy and Melissa McCarthy are actual first cousins, not just two comedic actresses who happen to share a surname. Their bond traces back to a shared upbringing in Illinois, long before either one set foot on a soundstage. What’s followed since is a relationship built on one cousin opening a door for the other — and then defending her when critics tried to slam it shut.

• Jenny gave Melissa her first credited on-camera TV role, hiring her as a production assistant on 1997’s “Jenny” before casting her in an episode — a break Melissa told Howard Stern opened real industry doors.
• In 2013, Jenny told E! News that critic Rex Reed could “go to hell” after he called Melissa “tractor-sized” and a “gimmick comedian” in a review of “Identity Thief,” insisting her cousin is “very, very talented.”
• Melissa skipped Jenny’s 2014 wedding to Donnie Wahlberg, fueling feud rumors that both women later shut down — Jenny citing an intimate guest list, Melissa blaming clashing schedules in “opposite worlds” of television and film.

A Childhood Rooted in Illinois

Long before either McCarthy became a household name, they were kids growing up together in Illinois, close enough that Jenny still reaches back for the memories decades later. In July 2015, she posted a throwback photo from the 1970s to Instagram showing herself, her sister, and Melissa at a zoo trip in 102-degree heat — the kind of family snapshot that undercuts any narrative about the cousins being strangers who just happen to share a name.

The Break That Started Melissa’s Career

Jenny’s fame came first, and it came fast — Playboy, MTV’s “Singled Out,” and by 1997 her own self-titled NBC/MTV sketch comedy series, “Jenny.” Melissa, meanwhile, was struggling to get a foothold in acting and had privately set herself a deadline: if she hadn’t broken through by 30, she planned to quit. Jenny hired her cousin as a production assistant on the show and then put her in front of the camera for an episode, giving Melissa her first credited on-screen television role. Melissa has since told Howard Stern that the opportunity was the one that got the rest of her career moving.

Melissa went on to build the kind of résumé that dwarfed the show that launched her, eventually becoming one of Hollywood’s highest-grossing comedic leads. Jenny’s path stayed largely in reality TV and daytime talk. It’s a divide that later became the center of tabloid speculation about tension between them — but it’s also exactly what Melissa herself pointed to as the real explanation for why the cousins aren’t constantly photographed together.

Jenny Defends Melissa Against Rex Reed

The clearest evidence that there’s no real rift came in 2013, when New York Observer film critic Rex Reed reviewed “Identity Thief” and went after Melissa’s body, calling her “tractor-sized” and writing that she was “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious.” Jenny didn’t stay quiet. She went to E! News and said attacking an actor’s appearance was hurtful and out of line.

Melissa is “very, very talented,” and Rex Reed “can go to hell.”

It’s the kind of public defense that doesn’t happen between cousins who secretly can’t stand each other — and it stands in contrast to the pattern covered in celebs who started out friends and ended up enemies, where the split is real and the silence afterward is total.

The Wedding That Fueled Feud Rumors

Speculation about bad blood ramped up in 2014 when Melissa didn’t show up to Jenny’s wedding to Donnie Wahlberg. Both women addressed it directly rather than letting the story fester. Jenny explained the ceremony was kept to a tight, intimate circle rather than a full extended-family guest list, and pushed back on media attempts to frame it as women turning on each other. Melissa, in her own interview with Howard Stern, said the lack of regular contact came down to nothing more than living in “opposite worlds” — Jenny anchored in reality and talk TV, Melissa carrying tentpole studio comedies, with schedules that rarely lined up.

Jenny’s own Hollywood origin story, which included a run in Playboy before “Singled Out” ever aired, is detailed further in what living in the Playboy Mansion was really like — context for just how different a launching pad she had compared to the cousin she later helped put on camera.

Neither cousin has ever walked back those explanations, and there’s been no public blowup since. What’s actually on the record is a lot simpler than the rumor mill wanted it to be: one cousin gave the other her first TV credit, defended her against a critic who went for her body, and skipped nothing more dramatic than a small wedding guest list.