Jenny McCarthy once prayed for a very specific kind of husband — and got him. “Listen, don’t bring me half-baked guy,” she told Fox News about the prayer she offered up before Donnie Wahlberg ever entered her life.
More than a decade into their marriage, that prayer has grown into something bigger than either of them expected: a shared, increasingly public walk with Jesus that shows up in interviews, Instagram posts and even date night. Here are five facts about where the BLUE BLOODS star and his wife stand with God right now.
1. Donnie Wahlberg calls giving his life to Christ his “greatest accomplishment” — bigger than fatherhood.
Wahlberg made the claim during a Forrest Frank concert last year, and it’s stuck as the headline of his faith story ever since.
“So of all the things I did in my life, just in the last year, I gave my life to Christ, and that’s the most important thing of all the things I did,” he said. “So, I’m a dad, and that’s important, and I raised my sons, and they’re good men, and I’m proud of a lot of things I did, but it doesn’t matter as much as giving my life to Jesus.”
Movieguide® has tracked the shift closely, cataloguing 21 separate times Wahlberg has spoken publicly about his faith over the past year alone.
2. He describes his faith as a years-long, on-and-off journey that only recently deepened.
Wahlberg isn’t presenting himself as a man who found God overnight. On “The George Janko Show” podcast, he walked through decades of near-misses and false starts before things changed.
“God’s been very patient with me. It’s been an on and off journey my whole life. And it’s really in the last year that I really have committed myself on a deeper level,” Wahlberg said, per Church Leaders.
He also drew a sharp line between religious habit and relationship, telling Janko he still enjoys “going to Catholic church sometimes,” but for most of his life “it wasn’t about relationship so much.” That’s changed, he said: “I can’t do it anymore without Him.”
3. Donnie regularly posts scripture-driven prayers to his fans on social media — and Movieguide® has covered it.
Wahlberg has turned part of his Instagram feed into something closer to a devotional. In a July post that Movieguide® reported on, he wrote out a full prayer for his followers.
“God is with you. God is for you. God sees you. God hears you. God knows you. God cares about you. God loves you,” he wrote, according to Movieguide®’s own coverage of the post. He closed the message the way he opened it, thanking God for “your love, your grace, your faithfulness and your goodness,” before praying for anyone struggling: “may they know that they are not alone. In Jesus name, Amen!”
4. Jenny McCarthy says her relationship with God intensified sharply after Charlie Kirk’s death — and she doesn’t hold back describing it.
McCarthy has spoken about her faith for years, but she told podcast host Alex Clark that the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk pushed her further than she expected to go.
“I have a very deep relationship with God. You know, some people have to work really hard to hear Him. I’ve got a direct line. I mean, Jesus is my homie,” McCarthy said on the “Culture Apothecary” podcast, as reported by Beliefnet.
She added that while she’d “always been a follower of Christ,” Kirk’s death was the turning point: “When he passed, I completely surrendered. I am so devoted. I started Bible study immediately.”
5. The couple now describes their marriage as fully “surrendered” to God — right down to date night.
McCarthy and Wahlberg have started framing their whole relationship, not just their individual beliefs, around their faith. McCarthy told OK! Magazine that prayer has become a daily tool, not an occasional one.
“We’ve surrendered. We really have given our life to the Lord and are just trusting the path, and honoring what we’re here to do through him,” McCarthy said, according to OK! Magazine. She said prayer “has done such wonders” and that she’ll “put on my Christian playlist” when she needs it most, calling it “the best medicine you could ever take.”
Even their idea of a night out has changed, Wahlberg said in the same piece: “Date night for us though typically looks like…we make a big plan, we’re about to get ready, and then we say, ‘Ah, let’s stay in and watch THE CHOSEN.’”
For two people who built careers on reality TV and boy-band fame, it’s a fairly quiet way to spend a Friday night — but for Wahlberg and McCarthy, that quiet has become the point.