Share and Follow
Jerry O’Connell recently posed alongside John Stamos, the former husband of his wife, Rebecca Romijn, marking a moment of reconciliation following their public dispute two years ago.
Despite his fame, O’Connell doesn’t actually go by his given name.
The Stand By Me star revealed that even his closest friends and family refer to him by a different name than his official one.
“My birth name is Michael Jeremiah O’Connell,” he disclosed during a May 8 appearance on Live with Kelly & Mark with his mother, Linda O’Connell. “But everyone has always known me as Jerry.”
Linda confirmed this to hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, noting that her 52-year-old son’s full legal name is Michael Jeremiah Witkowski O’Connell.
“His grandfather is Jeremiah,” explained Linda, whose maiden name is Witkowski, “and our favorite cousin is Jerry DeScipio.”
But she never referred to Jerry by his full name at home—even at times when he crossed her.
“No, I was always a Jerry,” the Kangaroo Jack actor remarked. “Sometimes I look at myself, and I go, ‘yeah, I am a Jerry.’ I don’t look like a Michael, actually.”
Indeed, Jerry was quite the mischief-maker as a kid. As Linda put it, “He was very active, very energetic and always in trouble.”