{"id":2408195,"date":"2026-05-08T20:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2408195"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:08:22","slug":"jerry-oconnell-explains-why-hes-never-gone-by-his-real-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jerry-oconnell-explains-why-hes-never-gone-by-his-real-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry O\u2019Connell explains why he\u2019s never gone by his real name"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3 class=\"heading\">Key Points<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>Jerry O&#8217;Connell revealed his real name on <em>Live with Kelly and Mark<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>The actor appeared alongside his mom on the special episode.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>O&#8217;Connell thinks that he was always meant to be a Jerry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It turns out that <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jerry O'Connell;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/jerry-oconnell\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Jerry O&#8217;Connell<\/a> is not actually Jerry O&#8217;Connell.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing alongside his mother, Linda, the <em>Stand by Me<\/em> actor made the shocking confession on Friday&#8217;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Live with Kelly and Mark;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/live-with-kelly-and-mark-8300004\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Live with Kelly and Mark<\/em><\/a>, when Kelly Ripa confronted him about using a &#8220;fake name.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His real name is Michael Jeremiah Witkowski O\u2019Connell,&#8221; said Mrs. O&#8217;Connell, whose maiden name is Witkowski. &#8220;His grandfather is Jeremiah, and our favorite cousin is Jerry DeScipio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite his given name being Michael, O&#8217;Connell doesn&#8217;t believe it ever really fit him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was always a Jerry,&#8221; he declared. &#8220;Sometimes I look at myself, and I go, &#8216;Yeah, I am a Jerry. I don&#8217;t look like a Michael, actually.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On the special Mother&#8217;s Day episode, O&#8217;Connell&#8217;s mom opened up about her son being &#8220;very active, very energetic, and always in trouble&#8221; as a kid. &#8220;Energetic is a code word for annoying,&#8221; he joked.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Connell&#8217;s energy led him to pursue acting at a young age, and he made his film debut in Rob Reiner&#8217;s iconic 1986 coming-of-age film <em>Stand by Me<\/em>. He went on to appear in <em>Jerry Maguire<\/em>, <em>Scream 2<\/em>, and <em>Kangaroo Jack<\/em>, before later transitioning into daytime television as one of the hosts of CBS&#8217; <em>The Talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our <\/em><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He did get in a little bit of trouble in school because all of his teachers \u2014 especially one who stands out \u2014 said, &#8216;He talks too much and he never sits still and he\u2019s always raising his hand and he never stops talking,'&#8221; Linda recalled. &#8220;So I said, \u2018You don\u2019t realize, you\u2019re trying to stifle the very things we\u2019re trying to encourage in this boy.\u2019 So she shut up!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With all of the sharing from his mom, O&#8217;Connell declared, &#8220;You&#8217;re learning everything about me today!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/jerry-o-connell-why-hes-never-gone-by-real-name-11970739\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points Jerry O&#8217;Connell revealed his real name on Live with Kelly and Mark. The actor appeared alongside his mom on the special episode. O&#8217;Connell thinks that he was always meant to be a Jerry. It turns out that Jerry O&#8217;Connell is not actually Jerry O&#8217;Connell. Appearing alongside his mother, Linda, the Stand by Me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2408196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[389207,470784,470798,34127,351251,470797,470796,470799],"class_list":["post-2408195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-jerry-maguire","tag-jerry-o39connell","tag-kangaroo-jack","tag-kelly-ripa","tag-live-with-kelly-and-mark","tag-maiden-name","tag-michael-jeremiah-witkowski-oconnell","tag-o39connell"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Jerry-OConnell-explains-why-hes-never-gone-by-his-real.com2Fen2Faol_entertainment_weekly_articles_3682F70c5fddbfcabcedc18e357bec.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408197,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408195\/revisions\/2408197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}