Donnie Wahlberg Embraced Being A Stepdad To Jenny McCarthy’s Autistic Son Who’s Emulating Him In The Best Way

Donnie Wahlberg has been a crush for many teenage girls over the years, especially during the heyday of the boy band he co-founded, New Kids on the Block, during the late ’80s to the early ’90s.

While he was dubbed the bad boy of New Kids on the Block, he eventually proved critics wrong over the years when he became a family man. Wahlberg is more than just eye candy — he also has a good heart.

In August 1999, Wahlberg married Kimberly Fey. They share two sons, Xavier, born in 1993, and Elijah, whom they welcomed in 2001. However, they decided to end their marriage and filed for divorce in 2008, nearly a decade after they tied the knot.

Wahlberg met actress and TV personality Jenny McCarthy in 2012, but they only reconnected a year later. In March 2013, Wahlberg made an appearance on McCarthy’s talk show “The Jenny McCarthy Show.” Then in July 2013, reports about Wahlberg and McCarthy dating surfaced following a report by Us Weekly.

Fast forward to April 2014, when the couple announced their engagement on “The View” and got married four months later, in August 2014.

When Wahlberg married McCarthy, they each already had children of their own, and together they enjoy their blended family setup.

In an interview with Us Weekly in November 2019, Wahlberg described McCarthy as an amazing mom and stepmom to their kids.

“Besides being the best wife that I could have ever imagined having, she’s also the best stepmom and mother,” Wahlberg said.

McCarthy’s son Evan Joseph, who she had with her ex, John Asher, was diagnosed with autism when he was born. Despite McCarthy’s child being from another man, Wahlberg stepped up to become his father and treated him as his own.

Wahlberg is one proud dad to Evan, who he described as an interesting individual.

“One of the interesting things about us as parents is my son is super intellectual and very reserved. So he’s not the, ‘Hey, dad. Let’s go out and play,’ or, ‘I love you, dad.’ He’s not that type. But he can carry on a great conversation,” he said

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The “Blue Bloods” star also formed a connection with McCarthy’s son that he didn’t get to have with his own children. The same goes for McCarthy, who became close with Wahlberg’s son.

“So we’ve come into each other’s lives and our kids sort of, we connect with our kids in ways that we haven’t connected with our own. So with Evan, Jenny’s son, I get all this amazing ways to connect with him that I don’t get with my son and Jenny now can sit down with my son and talk about,” he remarked.

McCarthy admitted her and Evan’s lives changed when Wahlberg came into their world.

“Before I met Donnie, it was really difficult … Being a single mom is so difficult and then a single mom with (a kid) with special needs adds another whole difficulty to the basket,” McCarthy told Page Six.

When she recounted their engagement story on “The View,” McCarthy revealed, while holding back tears, that Wahlberg included Evan in his proposal, and after she had said yes, her son exclaimed, “I have another dad!”

Wahlberg proved his love for Evan isn’t just all talk. In fact, he already shouldered Evan’s college tuition, which McCarthy revealed was Wahlberg’s Christmas gift.

“One Christmas, early on, Donnie handed me one of the greatest gifts ever, which was, I don’t even know how to explain it, but basically that he was taking care of Evan’s college tuition,” McCarthy said.