The TV adaption of Jennette McCurdy‘s I’m Glad My Mom Died memoir has faced a multitude of production challenges behind the scenes.
McCurdy got her start as a child star in Nickelodeon’s iCarly and Sam & Cat, She ultimately quit acting to pursue a career in writing and directing.
In 2022, McCurdy released a memoir titled I’m Glad My Mom Died. It quickly became a bestseller for its candid depiction of McCurdy’s childhood, which involved abusive behavior from her since-deceased mother.
The tell-all was picked up to be adapted on Apple starring Jennifer Aniston — but has since been plagued with issues that delayed the show. McCurdy, for her part, referred to the process as “interesting” yet “complicated” during a January 2026 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
Keep scrolling for an explainer of the delays:
The Key Players
During her childhood, Jennette had a tumultuous relationship with mother Debra McCurdy, who introduced her to several eating disorders and forced her to continue acting.
Following Debra’s death from cancer in 2013, Jennette briefly continued to book roles before stepping away from acting. She pivoted to writing and used her personal essays as inspiration for a one-woman dark comedy show: I’m Glad My Mom Died. This ultimately became the jumping off point for Jennette’s 2022 memoir of the same name, which received a 10-episode TV order from Apple.
“Of course, there are moments where I fantasize that my mom would’ve apologized or that we’d have a turnaround in our relationship, but that’s fantasy,” Jennette told Vogue in August 2022 about reflecting on her complicated relationship with her mother. “That’s a lot of what the book is about to me, not needing to romanticize the dead and validate our own experience with them.”
She continued: “I feel very confidently that if my mom were still alive, I’d still have eating disorders. I’d still be having a lot of mental health struggles. I’m sure she and I would still live in the same place and I would have no chance of being in a relationship or having any friends. I have no doubt my life would still be very controlled by her if she were alive.”
The Gist
According to the show synopsis, the dramedy will center on “the codependent relationship between an 18-year-old actress in a hit kids’ show, and her narcissistic mom who relishes in her identity as a starlet’s mother.”
The first season was written, executive produced and showrun by Jennette and Ari Katcher. Aniston, Sharon Horgan and Merman, LuckyChap, Jerrod Carmichael and Erica Kay also served as executive producers.
Filmmaker Jason Reitman was involved as its director but exited the project. Outlets reported that alleged creative differences with Jennette about the tone of the show caused the issues. Puck News claimed in August 2025 that the series was given a short window by Apple to find a replacement or be put on hold indefinitely.
In July 2026, TMZ reported that Aniston left the series due to scheduling issues.
Nickelodeon alum Jennette McCurdy surprised fans when she first detailed her abusive relationship with her mother, Debra McCurdy. Jennette and her three older brothers were raised in California by Debra and father Mark McCurdy. (The actress would later find out that Mark was not her biological dad.) As a child, Jennette’s mother encouraged her to […]
What Has Been Said
Jennette McCurdy and her mother Debra McCurdy attend the 16th annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women on May 9, 2009. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Before the creative issues, Aniston spoke about joining the show and her connection to Jennette. “We have a lot in common,” Aniston told People in October 2025. “We had very similar moms.”
She continued: “When it came across my desk as an option, an offer to play this character and work with Jennette and Sharon Horgan and LuckyChap, I was pretty much immediately intrigued and flattered and excited. It’s going to be wonderful. It’s going to be pretty great to start shooting it. The fact that she’s the young woman that she is, having lived that life, is nothing short of remarkable.”
Jennette, meanwhile, broke her silence about the production drama three months later.
“There are a lot of politics involved, which is not my forte. It’s really interesting because for writing, you’re really rewarded for being truthful,” she said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I’m show running, creating and executive producing this thing. With producing, you’re rewarded for not being truthful. So it’s a lot of like, ‘OK, how can we tell this person one thing but do another?’”
Jennette called the experience difficult, adding, “I won’t lie, it’s been challenging navigating the politics of it. I feel much more connected to my books. … There’s no games involved. There’s no chess match involved.”
What’s Next
Jennette McCurdy Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
No updates on the show’s future have been made public. Jennette, for her part, elaborated on her vision for the show to Alex Cooper.
“It’s horrifying. I think it’s the only way to do this project is to be doing it with people who relate deeply to the material,” she added in January 2026. “Otherwise, it’s a moot point. If somebody’s just doing it for the wrong reasons, I think it really gets lost in a project like this.”
She concluded: “That can work for a lot of projects but I think for something that comes from this personal of a place, other people have to relate that deeply or it just gets watered down.”
