Jenny McCarthy Recalls Attending 1997 Oscars in Valentino Gown She Accidentally Wore Backward

Jenny McCarthy’s first time at the Oscars was definitely one to remember. 

While appearing on Live with Kelly and Mark with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on March 14, the Masked Singer panelist, 51, reflected on her Academy Awards debut in 1997, which came with a major lesson in dressing in designer. 

“You’ve been to the Oscars. What’s your big takeaway?” asked Ripa, who wore a Jason Wu sheer gown on the 2024 Oscars red carpet on Sunday.  

“Well the funny thing is, I went to the Oscars once. They invited me when I was the It girl. They invite the It girl each year. I only was invited once, obviously,” McCarthy explained. 

“I literally was working at a Polish grocery store a year and a half prior to me going to the Oscars, so I didn’t know much. They put me in a Valentino dress — I didn’t know I wore the dress backwards,” she revealed. 

That year, McCarthy wore a sheer gown featuring a jeweled neckline and white sequined rose embellishments winding around the bodice and skirt. 

The Jenny star remembered how she thanked Valentino Garavani on the red carpet for allowing her to “borrow” the dress, only for the legendary designer to call out her sartorial blunder. 

“He said, ‘You’re wearing it backwards.’ You know what, it doesn’t surprise me, I was smelling like Polish sausage still from working the deli!” McCarthy said. 

Ripa defended McCarthy by saying the back of the dress actually should’ve been the front, just like the actress had worn it. McCarthy thanked the co-host for “sticking up” for her 27 years later. 

While she’s looking back at her past fashion mistakes, she’s definitely looking toward the future when it comes to her marriage to Donnie Wahlberg. 

The couple, who wed in August 2014, are celebrating their 10-year anniversary in a few months, and McCarthy told Ripa and Consuelos all about their romantic plans. 

“We review our vows every year,” McCarthy shared, adding that, for her and Wahlberg, 54, exchanging their vows over and over again is like renewing a driver's license. 

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“Why not? You stand in front of each other, life gets so busy and we just want to remind each other of the vows, and the path and the love we share.” 

When asked if they have any “big plans,” McCarthy said they’re in the midst of “figuring that out,” but she says traveling to an island with their kids is a prospect. The pair’s family is made up of McCarthy's son, Evan, whom she shares with her ex-husband, John Asher, and Wahlberg's sons, Xavier Alexander and Elijah Hendrix, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Kimberly Fey.