The Masked Singer and Blue Bloods star have been married for 10 years
Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg aren’t afraid to shout their love for each other from the rooftops – and it appears their blatant displays of affection have rubbed off on their children.
The Masked Singer judge, 52, and Blue Bloods star, 55, have a blended family, with Jenny sharing her son Evan, 22, with her ex-husband John Asher, and Donnie has two sons, Xavier, 31, and Elijah, 23, with his first wife Kimberly Fey.
In a new interview, Jenny revealed that Evan has picked up a few tricks about romance from his stepdad, which he implements in his own relationship with his girlfriend.
Jenny explained to Us Weekly that Evan can be seen “doing the little things that Donnie does for me” with his girlfriend – the biggest one being the couple’s nighttime ritual when they spend nights apart.
“When we’re away, we FaceTime sleep with each other,” she told the publication. “My son, who’s now 22 years old, I’ll go in his room to just check on him and he’s sleeping, and he’s got the FaceTime, pillow, girlfriend.”
Jenny admitted that seeing her son imitate her and Donnie’s relationship helped her to realize her husband was right when he told her to put their romance “at the center”.
© Instagram“That’s where I went, ‘Donnie was so right,'” she added. “No matter how butt-hurt your kids are initially, you’ve got to make you the priority. And then love always wins.”
Jenny explained that it was Donnie who taught her not to “hide” her love as she was initially uncomfortable to be affectionate around him in front of the kids.
© Bravo“That’s something that he would teach me of going, ‘No, no, no, we need to model,'” she said. ‘It’s OK if the kids are uncomfortable, they’ll get over it, because kids need to see what a healthy, loving relationship looks like.
“Sometimes it took me to be like, ‘Oh my God, your son’s here, don’t kiss me.’ That kind of thing,” she added. “It took me a little bit to adjust to it and then I realized once we did that, our kids fell in love with each other and became best friends.”
Donnie added that he can see himself and Jenny in their children’s relationships. “It looks like little us. It looks like us in our 20s,” he said to which Jenny replied: “It’s true!”
He continued: “I think it’s something that it took us trial and error to learn. But we’ve seen how successful and what an impact that’s had on our children and to see how they are now with their loved ones, it’s like, it’s very cool.”
© InstagramDonnie credits prioritizing their relationship and making a conscious effort to show their appreciation for each other as the reason for their almost 11-year marriage.
He explained: “When we started dating, I sent her flowers all the time. Why would I stop now? Because there’s the ring on her finger? Shouldn’t I put the same care into it as when I was trying to win her heart? [I should] put even more care into it. We both try to do that.”
