Howie Mandel hasn't shied away from discussing his various mental health disorders – but there's one that cuts especially deep as his daughter, Jackie Shultz , is also a sufferer.
The AGT judge, 67, battles with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, and in 2021 he revealed that Jackie, 38, also suffers from the mental health conditions.
Howie admitted that he blames himself for passing his health problems down to his daughter and opened up about their shared conditions during an interview in 2021.
According to the National Institute of Health, OCD is familial and genetic, meaning there is a chance of OCD being passed on to a child. If one parent has OCD, the chances of a child having OCD is approximately 15-20%.
"I'm not proud of that gift I've given her," he told People. "But our coping skills are to find the light." Jackie began exhibiting signs of OCD when she was a child, and like her dad, she struggles with an intense fear of germs and getting sick, something she admitted was heightened during the pandemic.
© Steve Granitz"It was really, really hard," she recalled at the time. "My anxiety sometimes leads to depression. I went through the extreme and I just locked myself in."
She added: "I've been isolated and scared for a year and a half and now that things are starting to open back up, I'm really not at the same place that most people are. I'm working with a therapist to get back out into the world."
Alongside anxiety and OCD, Howie was also diagnosed with ADHD when he was in his 40s and accidentally revealed his conditions while on a talk show, which he said left him "devastated".
© Getty"I often do things without thinking. That's my ADHD talking," he told Additude magazine. "Out in public, after I did the show, people came to me and said, 'Me, too.' They were the most comforting words I've ever heard. Whatever you're dealing with in life, know that you're not alone."
ADHD is a mental health disorder that includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior, according to the Mayo Clinic.
© Photo: Getty ImagesHowie's openness about his conditions has given Jackie great comfort. "My dad is very open about going to therapy and erasing the stigma," she said. "Whenever I was upset or sad or having a bad day, I knew I could reach out."
While they are close now, Howie was very "strict" with Jackie when she was a teenager. "As a teenager, [our issues] kind of ripped us apart," he confessed, also revealing that he was so paranoid about germs, he built a guest house to escape to if a family member became sick.
Talking of their "issues", Jackie explained: "There were a lot of control issues about me being safe, like, where was I, what did I get into, what did I touch? He was strict. And there was a lot of hovering. We had trouble getting along in those times."
