Jenny McCarthy was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, the second oldest daughter of Linda (Loheit), a courtroom custodian, and Daniel McCarthy, a steel mill foreman. She has Irish, German, and Polish ancestry. McCarthy has three sisters. She was educated at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, before going on to Southern Illinois University to study nursing and psychology. However, a lack of funds meant she had to drop out. To earn some money, McCarthy landed a chance to model for Playboy magazine and was Miss October 1993. She was eventually named 1994 Playmate of the Year. Following a relocation to Los Angeles, California, McCarthy landed some television host roles and also began picking up acting parts. Roles followed in various projects including BASEketball (1998), Scream 3 (2000), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Le Drew Carey Show (1995) and her own sitcom Jenny (1997). She also continued modeling.
McCarthy has one son, Evan Joseph, from her marriage to John Asher. In 2005, Evan was diagnosed with autism. She is also an author, writing successful books on pregnancy, motherhood and more.
After one year as co-host of The View, McCarthy can now be found hosting her own daily talk radio show on Sirius XM called Dirty, Sexy, Funny and can be found touring the country with her entourage of female comediennes with a show by the same name. A 1 hour special, with her comediennes and comedy vignettes can be found on Netflix by searching Jenny McCarthy presents, Dirty, Sexy, Funny.
