Actress (and now author) Jennette McCurdy is opening up about the real-life relationship that inspired her upcoming novel "Half His Age"—and the dynamics she describes are deeply unsettling in hindsight.
Appearing on Call Her Daddy, the former Nickelodeon star revealed that her first significant relationship was with an older man she met through work while she was still a teenager—and that he had a live-in girlfriend at the time.
“He had a girlfriend,” McCurdy said. “He had a girlfriend that he lived with.”
RELATED: Barnes & Noble Reveals the 2026 Fiction Books Readers Will Be Talking About All Year
McCurdy explained that she was around 18 when the relationship began and believed, at the time, that the age gap reflected her maturity rather than a power imbalance.
“Thinking that I was mature, thinking that I was so smart that this could happen,” she said. “I’m special. I can connect with older people. Younger people aren’t on my wavelength.”
Looking back, she sees how that belief was encouraged.
“Like that. Like f--king that,” McCurdy said when asked how he justified the relationship. “‘You’re so mature. I can’t talk to anyone this way. I can’t believe how smart you are.’ Are you kidding me?”
RELATED: Barnes & Noble’s January Book Club Pick Is a ‘Quiet & Devastating’ Booker Prize Finalist (Exclusive)
A Relationship Built on Secrecy and Control
The relationship unfolded in secret, largely confined to brief meetups at McCurdy’s apartment. She described being new to independence, inexperienced with alcohol, and unaware of just how intoxicated he often was.
“He comes over really drunk, and we make out,” she recalled. “At this point in my life, I’ve never had a sip of alcohol, so I don’t understand how drunk he is.”
As the relationship progressed, McCurdy said she became emotionally exhausted by the imbalance.
“It was exhausting, and I couldn’t do it anymore,” she said, describing the limited windows of time he allowed her and the constant feeling of being at his disposal.
Only when she tried to walk away, McCurdy said, did he promise to leave his girlfriend.
RELATED: Barnes & Noble Brings Back Fan-Favorite Signed Editions Deal
McCurdy also reflected on how sex functioned within the relationship—and how deeply it affected her sense of self-worth because she was a virgin when they met and he convinced her to try things like oral sex and eventually intercourse.
"He's completely drunk again ... and he asks me for a blow job, which I don't know what that is because I was raised Mormon and because I was homeschooled ... and that was my entry point into, you know, a real form of sexual activity," she said, adding, "I eventually did have sex with him."
"But having sex with him was, there was this, the only way I can describe it is that there was an addictive component where it was, that's the thing that I'm chasing, that's the thing that my nervous system is sort of hijacked in waiting for. And then when it happens afterward, there's the crash. And then it just kind of ramps up again in anticipation for the next sexual encounter ... whatever it was that I was confusing as a legitimate connection. But then sex always, I mean, it's going to taper off. It's going to fade."
RELATED: Barnes & Noble’s Children’s Book of the Year for 2025 Comes With a First-Ever Twist
She later realized that the intensity she had confused for connection masked deeper incompatibility.
“When that would happen, I’d go, ‘Oh, I don’t really know if I like what I’m left with here. I don’t want to be doing this anymore.’”
Writing Her Way to Closure
McCurdy said she didn’t initially realize how much unresolved anger she still carried about the relationship until she began writing Half His Age.
“I thought I was done. I thought I was good,” she said. “And then I’m writing this book… and it was, ‘Oh, because I have so much anger left about this thing.’”
She described fiction as her path to understanding and closure—both for herself and for readers who may recognize similar dynamics in their own lives.
“Writing is my way to closure for past experiences,” she said, “and my way for connection with other people who are kind of seeking a similar closure.”
? SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox ?
Hence then, the article about jennette mccurdy opens up about toxic affair that inspired her novel half his age was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Jennette McCurdy Opens Up About Toxic Affair That Inspired Her Novel 'Half His Age' )
Also on site :
- Ex-husband charged in deaths of Monique and Spencer Tepe
- Yeison Jiménez, Colombian Popular Music Star, Dies in Plane Crash at 34
- Aldi's Cutesy Wreath Will Add the Most Beautifully Romantic Vibes to Your Front Door for Valentine's Day