Jennette McCurdy's mother, Debbie McCurdy, thought she had beat breast cancer years earlier, but it returned while her daughter was still a Nickelodeon star. In 2011, McCurdy even opened up about her mother's struggles in a piece she wrote for The Wall Street Journal titled "Off-Camera, My Mom's Fight With Cancer," via Hollywood Life.

"I can't imagine how difficult it must be for my mother to tolerate all she has gone through and continues to go through – the pain, the worry and the battle," McCurdy wrote. "She wakes up every day hurting and goes to sleep hurting even more. My mother, the constant optimist and effervescent, sprightly woman I know her to be, is caged along with this hideous beast they call cancer."

In 2013, Debbie McCurdy passed away and the experience prompted her daughter to write a one-woman show called "I'm Glad My Mom Died." The play got off the ground in February 2020, but it never finished its run due to the coronavirus pandemic postponing live theater productions for more than a year.

McCurdy also admitted on her own web page that she turned to alcohol for a time, but that wasn't her only demon. She also confessed to having an eating disorder, according to Elite Daily.