Jenny McCarthy Reminisces On That Time She Accidentally Wore Her Valentino Oscars Dress Backwards

At least she can laugh about it now!

Jenny McCarthy waving with wide smile
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Jenny McCarthy only went to the Oscars once—and apparently, she made a major faux pas while she was there.

The Masked Singer judge appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark on Thursday, where she discussed the 1997 incident. "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 told the hosts. "I was literally working at a Polish grocery store a year and a half prior to me going to the Oscars, so I just didn’t know much. They put me in a Valentino dress—I didn't know I wore the dress backwards."

At that point, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos were both shocked, asking what McCarthy meant about the backward dress. And apparently, she found out from Valentino Garavani himself that she was wearing it the wrong way.

Still, wearing something backward can be a statement of its own, right? Ripa defended McCarthy's inadvertent style choice, saying, "If that's the back of the dress, I mean, it should be the front of the dress."

Jenny McCarthy in Valentino at the 1997 Oscars

Jenny McCarthy in Valentino at the 1997 Oscars

(Image credit: Getty Images)

McCarthy also discussed the faux pas with Us Weekly, telling the outlet "I just remember dying a little bit … Needless to say, I've never been dressed by Valentino again." But as Ripa told the actress, the mistake is nothing to be embarrassed of—and McCarthy still looked every bit the It Girl.

Meghan De Maria
Celebrity News Writer

Meghan is a freelance news writer at Marie Claire. Her work has also ppeared in Bustle, Refinery29, Popsugar, and other outlets. When she isn't writing, Meghan runs a community for plus-size people in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.