Jenny McCarthy says her two-year health “nightmare” started with a toothache.
On a recent episode of The Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Show, the 53-year-old described a string of dental procedures and infections before she says she was diagnosed with mold and mycotoxin poisoning in December 2025. According to People, McCarthy has since had mold removed from her Los Angeles home and is continuing treatment.
“Somehow that led me down a rabbit hole of doctors, surgeries, teeth being pulled, mysterious growths popping up in places you are not expecting, implants literally falling out, and eventually realizing my immune system was fighting something so much bigger,” she said. “At one point, you know, I was just so desperate to heal that I literally was living in a tent. That’s right, living in a tent!”
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A Toothache Turned Into Months of Appointments
McCarthy said the pain began in October 2024 and eventually sent her to the hospital in the middle of the night, per Parade. Treatment seemed to help at first, but the swelling returned while she was filming The Masked Singer.
She also developed recurring eyelid cysts and said dental implants had to be removed after they failed. During another procedure, she said her dentist discovered that an infection had reached her jawbone. “I literally have no teeth on [the left] side of my mouth,” she said. “There’s just nothing there.”
As the problems continued, McCarthy began wondering why she wasn’t healing. “Something is going on,” she recalled thinking. “Something drastic is going on.” She said a functional medicine doctor eventually suggested testing for mold, which she initially dismissed because her house was clean. McCarthy said the diagnosis helped explain why she felt her immune system was “under attack.”
What McCarthy Has Shared About Her Treatment
Mold exposure can cause coughing, wheezing, irritated eyes, and other symptoms, with more serious reactions possible in people with asthma, mold allergies, or weakened immune systems, according to the CDC.
McCarthy said she began what she calls a “mold detox” in January and has used medications, vitamins, daily infrared saunas, and therapeutic plasma exchange. The reports don’t specify which treatments her diagnosing doctor recommended. She said she plans to document her plasma exchange experience on the show.
Even after having work done on her house, McCarthy said she still feels afraid of another exposure and is struggling with PTSD. “I’m in month seven of detox and I’m too paranoid to honestly live anywhere else other than a tent,” she said. “I feel a little bit crazy and like the walls are caving in.”
