Inside Jennette McCurdy And Miranda Cosgrove's Friendship During iCarly
While it was on the air from 2007 to 2012, Nickelodeon's "iCarly" was undoubtedly one of the most popular teen sitcoms on television. Nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program five times, as well as nine Teen Choice Awards, one episode — "iSaved Your Life" in 2010 — was even viewed by over 11 million viewers. This episode even became the second-most viewed broadcast in the network's history, after only the 2001 "Rugrats" special, "All Growed Up."
"iCarly's" popularity proved so dominant that, in 2021, Paramount+ (owned by Paramount, the same company which owns Nickelodeon) even began developing a reboot series — which brought back three of the four main cast members (minus Jennette McCurdy) — nearly 10 years after the end of the original series.
Fans of "iCarly" will remember the heart of the series shining through the most between stars Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy, who played best friends Carly Shay and Samantha "Sam" Puckett. But what many fans may not know is just how close the two girls really were in real life; as it turns out, their friendship meant a lot more to McCurdy in particular than you might think.
Jennette McCurdy bonded with Miranda Cosgrove almost instantly
In 2022, Jennette McCurdy released her memoir, "I'm Glad My Mom Died," in which she revealed a number of harrowing details about her past, mostly centered around her abusive mother, Debbie, who died of cancer in 2013. However, McCurdy also revealed a few more lighthearted anecdotes about her past, including how she bonded with co-star Miranda Cosgrove.
Despite McCurdy distancing herself from the show in recent years, she revealed that it used to be quite different. In the beginning, she almost immediately became enamored by Cosgrove, who is a year younger than McCurdy but already had a fairly well-established acting career. "She walked alone to pick up food from a different nearby restaurant each day — alone!" McCurdy wrote. "What's that like? Then I'd always hear when she came walking back into the studio because she'd be playing Gwen Stefani or Avril Lavigne ... I knew of these artists, but Mom didn't allow me to listen to them because she said their music might make me wanna 'do bad things.'"
Naturally, Debbie was not fond of Cosgrove, mostly due to the latter's lack of religious convictions. However, the two teenage girls nonetheless developed a friendship and communicated on AIM, largely behind Debbie's back. In fact, when "iCarly" finally came to an end in 2012, McCurdy says she was "devastated" about it, largely because feared it might mean the end of their friendship as well. However, that proved not to be the case.
Jennette McCurdy took Miranda Cosgrove to meet her biological father
After Jennette McCurdy's mother died the year after "iCarly" ended, she and Miranda Cosgrove only grew closer. In fact, their friendship is still going strong to this day. "I'm very grateful for that friendship," McCurdy told EW in 2022. "It did provide me a lot of comfort in those really challenging years. My relationship with Miranda was hugely healing to my concept of women."
McCurdy also revealed in her memoir that after her mother died, her father, Mark, then dropped a bomb on her: he was not in fact her biological father. McCurdy was actually the product of a seven-year affair her mother had with a jazz musician named Andrew, who lived near her in California. As a result, McCurdy decided to take a small group of friends — including Cosgrove — to go see him. It was actually Cosgrove who drove them to Newport Beach, where they met him for the first — and potentially last — time. Though she enjoyed meeting him, McCurdy wrote, she doesn't know if she has any interest in ever meeting him again.
Although Cosgrove has been a source of emotional support for McCurdy throughout these times, it wasn't until late in their friendship when she realized McCurdy was struggling so much. As she told The New York Times in 2022, "You don't expect things like that from the person in the room who's making everyone laugh."