McCarthy wrote in her book, Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism, that her son Evan, now 16, developed autism at 3-years-old after getting the MMR — measles, mumps and rubella — vaccine.
She says she was able to heal her son’s autism with a gluten-free diet, cod-liver oil, vitamins and enrolling him in behavioral therapy.
During this particular 2025 interview, McCarthy said parents had praised her for her views and book, thanking her for making them "not feel crazy."
ICYMI — Jenny McCarthy said the U.S. government hired a PR firm to smear her for discussing the correlation between vaccines and autism: "They're going to come after you hard."
— Toria Brooke ☘️ (@realtoriabrooke) April 2, 2025
pic.twitter.com/IVGYV9g4GR
McCarthy stated, "And then I had someone come to my organization, Generation Rescue, and say to me, "Listen, I was approached by [a government agency] to be hired... and what I do is I hire PR campaigns to go against the narrative. I am telling you privately, because I turned them down, and give you forewarning—because they are going to hire someone else—my child went through the same thing, and I didn't want to be part of it."
Menounos responded, "Whoa whoa whoa, I am in shock... can you just repeat that whole thing again? Because, if I am having it, someone else is having it."
"Someone came to me and said, "I am a PR agency, very—high echelon—and I was approached by a government agency to create a narrative against you, and it's going to be called: "You're anti-vaccine." And, I turned down the job, but I wanted to privately and secretly discuss—we couldn't do an email or phone call, I had to come to you in-person and let you know this. That they're going to come after you, and hard."
McCarthy continued, "Well, how are they going to do that when I have said in every interview that I am not anti-vaccine? I am just telling the story of my child and how I am getting him better."
"He said, "It doesn't matter, they're going to come after you with everything they've got, and they've got the media on their side. So this is just a head's up."
McCarthy said, "And I was like, well, thank you very much, and I didn't believe him."
"When you have your faith in you, and your truth [you're not scared]... I am a tough chick; I am from the South Side of Chicago, I've went through enough—you know, I went to an all-girl Catholic school (laughs). So, you know, I think it gave me a good armor."
"So, when it started happening, it didn't really hurt me until it started taking jobs away from me. Because I was a single mother still trying to heal my son, pay for speech therapy. . . I was the beginning of that cancel culture."
McCarthy explained, "I would get calls from certain jobs saying, "We're taking you off this campaign." That was the hard part—because I was a single mom."
"If I was some rich bitch that didn't give a shit, it probably wouldn't have affected me; but it was the job aspect. Because sticks and stones, I don't care. But I just heavily relied on still writing my books and not giving up."