Jenny McCarthy was only dating Donnie Wahlberg for a short amount of time when he gave her a gift that changed her life.
"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," Jenny told Page Six, referring to her son Evan. "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."
The "The Masked Singer" panelist "lost it."
"You know, I was so worried if I would have enough money by the time he'd be able to go [to college] and you know, [Donnie] kind of covered the bills and therapy and we only had just met," she said. "It wasn't even something like, 'Oh, it's five years, here's something,' it's like, 'I see that you're hurting in this area of your life. I love Evan, and I want to do this for you both.'"
Jenny, who married Donnie in 2014, is still touched by the gesture.
"I'm just still so grateful. It's so wonderful. It shows you what kind of human being he is too to just recognize something like that in a single mom and her son," she said. "Thank you, Donnie. It was really sweet."
Donnie, who Jenny has said "wins" at romance, certainly remembers the gift, but sees their family as an even greater present.
"Probably the best gift I think we can think of, and this might sound sappy, is that we each have given an additional parent to our kids," he said. "You know, our sons have grown up together in our homes with us and Jenny's really a wonderful stepmom to my son and I'm stepdad to her son, and giving them a unified family Christmas after years of being single parents, I think that's really the best gift we can give each other."
Awwww!