Jenny McCarthy is stirring up controversy as soon as once more, this time claiming she recognized legendary journalist Barbara Walters with the start levels of dementia primarily based on a single interplay throughout their time on “The View.”
The 52-year-old former Playboy mannequin, who has no medical credentials, has a historical past of pushing questionable well being claims, together with extensively debunked theories linking vaccines to autism. Now, she’s including Walters to her listing of unverified diagnoses.
Throughout a March 25 interview on Maria Menounos’ “Heal Squad” podcast, McCarthy mentioned her transient and tumultuous time as a co-host on “The View” from 2013 to 2014.
The previous MTV star detailed the challenges she confronted on the ABC discuss present, together with a chang.org petition to get her off the present, however it’s her off-the-cuff medical evaluation of Walters that has many elevating eyebrows.
In line with McCarthy, for that one yr, she was particularly employed to inject popular culture into “The View” following the departures of Pleasure Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Producers needed at that time to “loosen up” the present’s tone.
“Per week into internet hosting ‘The View,’ Barbara Walters — I had talked about one thing about Katy Perry, who Barbara simply interviewed on her ’10 Most Well-known Individuals of the 12 months’ factor — and she or he mentioned, ‘Who?’” she recalled.
Including, “And I mentioned, ‘Katy Perry.’ And she or he says, ‘Who’s Katy Perry?’” McCarthy recalled. “It was the primary signal that I noticed that Barbara was affected by starting levels of dementia. I used to be like, ‘Oh s—t.’ It was actually not even per week into the present.”
McCarthy claims this second triggered a sudden shift within the present’s course, with producers allegedly abandoning their popular culture focus to guard Walters.
“They had been like, ‘We’re flipping it. There’s no extra popular culture, we’re going again to politics,’” she mentioned. “So she didn’t look dangerous. She knew politics, however she didn’t know popular culture.”
The claims about Walters, who handed away in December 2022 at age 93, stay unverified, in accordance to the New York Publish.
Whereas there have been studies of Walters experiencing cognitive points in her later years, neither she nor her household ever confirmed such a prognosis. The legendary broadcaster retired from tv in 2014 however hadn’t been seen publicly since 2016.
Publish readers shortly criticized McCarthy’s armchair prognosis.
“Wow Jenny is complicated superior age with dementia. Hey newsflash names come and go while you’re a senior,” wrote one commenter.
One other added, “Agree, and heaven forbid {that a} 70-80-year-old skilled information sort doesn’t know or care about some new pop singer.”
One reader sarcastically famous, “Newest dementia check has just one query: ‘Who’s Katy Perry?’ I might fail that query so I suppose I’ve dementia.”
This isn’t McCarthy’s first foray into controversial medical pronouncements.
On the identical podcast, she mentioned that her vegan way of life virtually killed her, and now she eats meat once more.
“I attempted vegan, and I virtually died. I actually virtually died,” she mentioned.
She continued, “I used to be exhausted, fatigued, I used to be a multitude. So, I went on a low histamine weight loss plan; I went on each one in all ’em. Lastly, my practical medication physician mentioned to me final yr, ‘It’s time so that you can go full carnivore.’”
One other medical evaluation she made aligns with the person that she and her husband endorsed for president within the final election, Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Robert Kennedy Jr.
Following her son’s autism prognosis in 2005, she turned a vocal critic of vaccines, suggesting the mumps-measles-rubella vaccine triggered his situation — a concept that started in 1998 with a now-retracted medical paper revealed by British Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Though Wakefield has misplaced his license to observe medication and his competition concerning the MMR vaccine has been totally discredited by scientific analysis, his invalid claims concerning the MMR vaccine have gained widespread acceptance.
McCarthy’s notorious 2008 assertion in PBS, “For those who ask 99.9 p.c of oldsters who’ve kids with autism if we’d somewhat have the measles versus autism, we’d join the measles,” drew sharp criticism from medical professionals and public well being advocates. The well being care neighborhood’s response to McCarthy’s quip got here 16 years earlier than the present lethal measles outbreak sweeping Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, infecting greater than 450 folks, most of them unvaccinated.
McCarthy’s stint on “The View” lasted only one season, with the actress claiming she was a poor match for the present’s confrontational type.
“They need you to battle,” she instructed Menounos. “They needed to instantly change from gentle and fluffy to battle. I’m not a fighter… I select the aspect of peace in any battle.”
Whereas McCarthy has moved on to different endeavors, together with judging “The Masked Singer” and co-hosting a docuseries along with her husband, Donnie Wahlberg, her sample of constructing unsubstantiated medical claims continues to lift eyebrows.
From vaccines to dementia, McCarthy appears decided to play physician—no matter her lack of medical credentials or the potential hurt such public hypothesis may trigger.