What She Overcame to Become a Hollywood Star Is Truly Unbelievable

McCurdy has revealed that the family lived in a cramped, hoarded home where church became her only escape. After her mother’s death in 2013, she learned a shocking truth: only one of the four children was biologically her mother’s husband’s. Her own father was a musician with whom Debra had maintained a long-running affair.

Debra homeschooled the children and pushed Jennette into acting, insisting it was the family’s “chance” at something better. McCurdy says that pressure—combined with invasive “exams,” strict diets, and monitored showers—played a major role in the eating disorder she developed as a child. Years later, intensive therapy helped her begin to heal.

Although Debra battled cancer for nearly twenty years, McCurdy describes her legacy as layered and painful. “I don’t hate my mom,” she has said. “She was complex—both good and bad.”