Jenny McCarthy Says She’s Camping in a Tent During Mold Detox—and the Symptoms Women Often Overlook

Doctors say mold may drive more chronic illness than many people realize, and it can be easy to overlook

Actress Jenny McCarthy says the past couple of years have been “absolutely fricking insane.” The 53-year-old former Masked Singer judge recently shared that she is living in a tent while she works to detox from what she describes as serious mold and mycotoxin poisoning. Her account is drawing attention to a hidden health concern that may affect far more women than many realize. Here’s what she has said about her symptoms, how she is doing now, and how one Woman’s World reader overcame mold-related health problems.

Jenny McCarthy’s alarming mold-related symptoms

On an episode of her Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Show podcast, McCarthy said her ordeal began with something as common as a toothache. “OK, I have been dying to tell you this story, because the last two years of my life have been absolutely fricking insane. Insane, OK?” she said. “Some of you guys already know that I’ve been dealing with mold and mycotoxin poisoning.”

What followed, she said, was “a rabbit hole of doctors, surgeries, teeth being pulled, mysterious growths popping up in places you are not expecting, implants literally falling out and eventually realizing my immune system was fighting something so much bigger.” She also described swollen bumps on her eyelid that briefly led doctors to worry about cancer. She joked that it felt like “25,500” surgeries, calling the experience with mold exposure symptoms “a Shakespearean play.”

Why McCarthy says she is doing a mold detox

McCarthy said it was only after she was “going through medical fatigue” that one doctor finally tested her for mold. The results were startling. “Jenny, you’ve got serious mold. You’ve got the type of mold that causes seizures. If this thing crosses the blood-brain barrier, I’m going to be talking to you in hospital. You’re going to start seizing,” she recalled the doctor warning her.

McCarthy, who is married to actor Donnie Wahlberg, is now deep into her mold detox and has become so concerned about re-exposure that she moved outdoors. “I’m still in my mold detox, you guys. I’m still in it, like, I’m knee-deep in it,” she said. “I’m in month seven of detox and I’m too paranoid to honestly live anywhere else other than a tent.”

Mold exposure symptoms can be easier to miss than you think

Her experience may sound extreme, but experts say mold in the home can be a hidden contributor to many health concerns.

“The mold problem is a hidden driver of women’s chronic illness,” says Bryn Kanuk, a doctor of acupuncture and founder of Austin Transformational Health. “As an integrative physician, I often meet women who are told their symptoms are unrelated, or worse, ‘just stress.’ But when you zoom out and connect the dots—fatigue, brain fog, gut issues, skin flares, lightheadedness—a different picture emerges.”

Tufts University research shows that even low levels of mycotoxins in the home can lead to toxicity that seriously affects health. Symptoms that may point to mold exposure include:

• Foggy thinking and mood swings
• Headaches, vision changes and dizziness
• Chronic fatigue
• Joint or muscle pain and weakness
• Nasal stuffiness, asthma symptoms or shortness of breath
• Digestive changes
• Itchy skin or allergic reactions
• Unexplained weight gain
• Sleep complaints

Because mold-related symptoms can vary so widely, Neil Nathan, MD, author of TOXIC, recommends a urine test to confirm mycotoxins. Tania Dempsey, MD, who treats mold patients and has also recovered from mold exposure herself, says healing often takes time. “Different molds can produce different amounts of toxins and affect people in different ways, making it tricky to treat,” she says. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all remedy. I take a comprehensive, layered approach.”

How one woman recovered from mold exposure

Jenna Leveille, 54, says she knows exactly what McCarthy is dealing with. In 2014, she was in the best shape of her life after losing 140 pounds. But by 2021, something had gone very wrong.

She started reacting to foods she had always been able to eat. On one flight, after eating walnuts, “my face broke out in burning hives. It felt like someone was pressing a hot frying pan against my skin. My eyes swelled and darkened with circles, almost like a raccoon. It was terrifying,” she recalls.

Weight gain, digestive problems and exhaustion followed. “I had to carry an EpiPen everywhere just in case.” Her doctor eventually admitted, “We’ll likely never be able to figure out what’s causing this.”

The test that finally explained the problem

A functional medicine doctor ran tests for six months without finding answers. At last, Jenna asked to be tested for mold. Her urine mycotoxin results came back “completely off the charts.” The source was a refrigerator ice maker that had leaked years earlier, allowing mold to spread behind her kitchen cabinets, inside a wall and in the crawl space of her Colorado home.

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Her recovery included professional remediation of her home, a prescription binder medication that attaches to toxins, a low-histamine anti-inflammatory diet, intermittent fasting and supplements such as probiotics, collagen, fish oil and vitamins C and D.

Her latest mold report showed an 80 percent improvement. “I want people who are in the middle of it to know there is real hope for true healing,” she says. “It worked for me!”