The Moment

Jenny McCarthy just dropped her annual over-the-top Christmas card, and this year it’s full-on Beach Barbie in December.

The 53-year-old former Playboy model and current “Masked Singer” judge is in a bright red bikini and Santa hat, posing in Palm Springs sand next to husband Donnie Wahlberg, who’s in matching red swim trunks and abs for days. The caption on the card: “A Palm Springs Christmas Edition.” Of course.

But behind the candy-cane fantasy, Jenny says that dramatic new figure is not the result of some secret wellness hack. It’s the fallout from what she describes as a yearlong medical crisis.

In an interview she recently did with People and echoed in a new report, Jenny says she’s had nine mouth surgeries in a year, has been on antibiotics for months, and could barely chew solid food. She talks about infections that kept coming back, teeth and implants falling out, and even growths on her eyeballs.

So yes, the photos are fun and flirty. But the price tag behind that bikini body? Rough.

The Take

I’m just going to say what a lot of us over 40 are thinking: if the only way to get a “revenge body” is nine surgeries, jaw pain, and mystery eye growths, I’ll stay in my high-waisted leggings, thanks.

The way this landed online is a perfect example of our celebrity culture problem. The surface headline is “Jenny McCarthy Shows Off Major Weight Loss”. The subhead should be: “…because she’s been in medical hell for a year.”

It’s like complimenting the fresh paint on a house that just survived a four-alarm fire. Yes, it looks good. But maybe ask about the smoke damage first.

Jenny McCarthy attends an event in a sheer embellished dress, showing her slimmed-down frame.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio

Jenny herself leans into the humor of it, saying, “People should actually feel a little sorry for me!” And that’s very her-she’s always done campy, almost cartoon glam with a wink. The Barbie beach Christmas card is exactly on brand for a woman who built a career out of bombshell energy and jokes that go slightly too far.

But I also hear something else between the lines: this is a 53-year-old woman in Hollywood who knows that any visible change in her body will become the story. So she takes control of the narrative the way a lot of women in the spotlight do-by turning it into a bit. “Yes, I’m skinny, no, it’s not Ozempic, also my jaw basically tried to quit my face this year.”

There’s a quiet reality check in all of this for the rest of us scrolling in our pajamas. That “effortless” bikini couple shot? It required a touring schedule that has Donnie dancing on stage night after night, a tight window before (as she jokes) he turns back into his donut-loving TV cop, and Jenny surviving months of soft foods and surgeries.

What I actually find refreshing is that she’s telling the truth. She could have let everyone assume she’d found the magic cleanse. Instead, she’s out here saying, “My teeth were falling out.” That’s not glamorous, but it’s honest-and in celebrity land, honesty is rarer than a natural lip.

Receipts

Confirmed:

  • Jenny McCarthy, 53, appears in a red bikini alongside husband Donnie Wahlberg in a Palm Springs-themed Christmas card photo she shared on Instagram in late November 2025. The card reads “A Palm Springs Christmas Edition.”
  • In an interview with People, published earlier the same week, Jenny said she’s had nine mouth surgeries over the past year, with recurring infections that made her teeth and implants fall out and required her to stay on antibiotics and eat soft foods only.
  • She described growths appearing on her eyeballs and repeated flare-ups of jaw swelling and pain, saying she could only recently chew again.
  • Jenny told the outlet that Donnie’s physique is helped by timing their photo shoots right after his tour and Vegas residency, when he’s been dancing and is in peak shape.
  • She is currently filming “The Masked Singer” in Los Angeles, while Donnie is working on his long-running cop drama, making holiday scheduling more complicated, according to her own comments.
Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy hold hands on the red carpet.
Photo: Getty Images

Unverified / Framed as Her Perspective:

  • Her joking remark that “people should actually feel a little sorry” for her is obviously her own spin, not a medical assessment.
  • Any connection between her medical ordeal and longer-term health outcomes has not been detailed publicly. Beyond what she’s said, we don’t know causes, diagnoses, or prognosis.

Key sources: Jenny McCarthy’s own comments in a late-November 2025 interview with People magazine; her Palm Springs Christmas card post and bikini photo shared on Instagram in November 2025; subsequent coverage summarizing those quotes and images on November 29, 2025.

Backstory (For Casual Readers)

If you haven’t kept up with Jenny McCarthy since the ’90s, here’s the shortcut. She first broke out as a Playboy model, then became a TV personality and actress with shows like MTV’s “Singled Out” and roles in comedies and horror films. In recent years, she’s been best known as a panelist on “The Masked Singer” and for her very public, very affectionate marriage to Donnie Wahlberg-New Kids on the Block alum and star of the long-running CBS cop drama “Blue Bloods.” The two are known for big, themed holiday cards and playful PDA, especially on social media.

What’s Next

Jenny says she can finally chew again, which is a low bar and also the kind of everyday victory you start celebrating after a year of surgeries. There’s no word yet on whether her infections and eye issues are fully resolved or just under control, and she hasn’t shared a formal medical diagnosis beyond what she’s described.

Professionally, both she and Donnie are still booked and busy. She’s taping “The Masked Singer” in Los Angeles; he’s working on his cop series and touring. That means their holidays will be short but intense-she’s already painting the picture of the two of them back home in Chicago, just the pair of them, a turkey, and probably that same sense of “we got through it.”

What I’ll be watching for isn’t the next bikini card. It’s whether this cracks open more honest conversations from celebs about how they really look the way they look-especially once health issues, age, and real life start piling up. Imagine a world where “you look amazing” automatically comes with “are you okay?”

So I’ll throw it to you: when you see a star drop a dramatic “after” photo and then reveal it came from illness, not a gym, does it change how you feel about the whole weight-loss praise cycle-or are we too far down the rabbit hole to stop treating every thinner body as a win?

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