A Timeline of Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy’s Romance

Somebody once said that every time a boybander gets married, a fangirl loses her sanity. This is something I personally proclaimed to my parents around the Nick and Jessica era.

Nevertheless, we are here to celebrate the newly engaged couple that is Boston’s beloved NKOTBer Donnie Wahlberg and TV personality Jenny McCarthy. But it’s really more important to appreciate the longtime blossoming romance than to examine that one day he put a ring on it. (This isn’t completely true—we’ll get to the ring eventually).

In honor of their future wedding, here is the emotional and oddly sexual year-long journey that led to the engagement of Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy:

March 2013
Donnie appears as a guest on The Jenny McCarthy Show.

The two got extra streamy, even during their very first TV appearance together. Jenny and Donnie repeated sexual innuendos at each other while provocatively sucking on lollipops.

Jenny asked, “Do you talk dirty while you’re having sex?”

“I do,” he said.

“You do—but some guys do it wrong,” she replied.

“Yeah, I don’t do it wrong,” Donnie Wahlberg said. Seductively. And then every single viewer’s discomfort level began to skyrocket.

March 2013
Jenny writes about her encounter with Donnie on her show in her blog on the Chicago Sun-Time’s Splash.

It reads:

Now, I want to talk about what happened between Donnie Wahlberg and me. Let’s just say we visually give “50 Shades of Grey” a run for its money. It gets steamy. I mean like really steamy. Being turned on by a guy is always fun but to have it legitimately happen to you on TV is to be turned back into a 12-year-old. By the time we get into the groundbreaking interview, my face turns fifty shades of RED.

And then NKTOB fans were stripped of their souls.

July 2013
People magazine reports that Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy are dating.

September 2013
Donnie is a guest on The View.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVyhXcu4PKM

Donnie was invited to be a guest on the show, and while he brought flowers for Sherri Shepherd, he showered Jenny’s dressing room with flowers and balloons. Jenny calls him “baby” and “boyfriend” and other things. This is happening as Sherri is over there sporting an “I <3 Donnie” T-shirt.

December 2013
Donnie and Jenny share a New Year’s Eve kiss on live TV.

Screenshot via Youtube

Jenny is one of many celebs who holds down Times Square on New Year’s Eve. She has a tradition of kissing a lucky person on the big night. While hosting Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, she shared her kiss with Donnie in front of millions of viewers.

February 2014
Jenny’s first appearance on Wahlburgers.

Jenny makes frequent cameos in the reality series. Here, she meets Alma, who dishes that Donnie’s childhood nickname was “Baby Donnie.” Later, Donnie’s brother Paul names a hot dog after Jenny for a Wahlburgers special—”Jenny’s Chicago Dog.”

April 2014
Jenny announces her engagement to Donnie on The View.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O7tquuv23Q

Wednesday morning, Jenny surprised the her co-hosts by revealing her ring—a yellow sapphire—and told the story of the proposal:

This weekend I was sitting with Donnie… and he went into the other room, and out came Evan [Jenny’s son] with a card that said “Will,” and he handed it to me… Then Evan ran away and Evan came back with a card that said “You,” and then he ran away and I knew what was happening, and I just started crying. And then Evan came back  with the card that said “Marry”—but spelled wrong, it said “M-A-R-Y.” And then the last time Donnie came out with Evan and Donnie’s shirt said “Me” with a question mark, holding a ring. And he got down on his knee…

Donnie then came out to the stage to surprise her. The ladies went bananas. Whoopi Goldberg remained completely unamused by the entire situation.

Here’s a selfie the couple took right after Donnie proposed:

Thank you for all the sweet wishes. @DonnieWahlberg and I are grateful and blessed. #love #bhlove pic.twitter.com/tY15W1k5eg

— Jenny McC-Wahlberg (@JennyMcCarthy) April 16, 2014