I’m Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy recounts a childhood shaped by her mother Debra’s stage-four cancer, Mormon guilt, and a relentless push into acting. From early auditions and background work to booking iCarly, McCurdy becomes the family’s financial lifeline—while her mother tightens control through enmeshment, body surveillance, and calorie restriction that spirals into disordered eating.

As fame grows, so do panic, resentment, and the cost of being “the good one.” McCurdy navigates a punishing Nickelodeon workplace, coercive power dynamics, and an escalating cycle of anorexia, bingeing, bulimia, and alcohol. When her mother’s cancer returns and she dies, the grief is tangled with relief, rage, and the collapse of the story McCurdy was taught to live by. Recovery begins when she confronts what happened, seeks treatment, and chooses a life beyond acting—and beyond her mother’s demands.

• Listeners interested in honest celebrity memoirs that focus on family systems, control, and the hidden costs of child fame
• People seeking a clear-eyed personal story about eating disorders, addiction, grief, and recovery (with heavy themes handled candidly)
• Anyone drawn to narratives about reclaiming identity after trauma, enmeshment, and emotionally abusive parenting

Jennette McCurdy is an actor-turned-writer/director known for Nickelodeon’s iCarly and Sam & Cat. After leaving acting, she pursued writing and directing, published essays, created a one-woman show titled I’m Glad My Mom Died, and hosts the podcast Empty Inside.