The Untold Truth Of Jesse McCartney

If you tuned in for Season 3 of The Masked Singer, then you know fans were positive that Jesse McCartney was underneath the turtle costume. And of course, when the "Beautiful Soul" singer was finally unmasked, viewers were pleased to see McCartney back on their television screens and to hear his voice again.

McCartney joined pop boy band Dream Street — which later helped launch his solo career — in 1999 and quickly rose to fame. In 2004, the Hollywood star released his first solo album, which featured the hit "Beautiful Soul."

However, McCartney has also dabbled in acting — he starred on the soap opera All My Children from 1998 to 2001, got nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards, and went on to star in Summerland on The WB from 2004 to 2005. Later on, he guest-starred in popular shows, including Greek, Young & Hungry, and Fear the Walking Dead.

So, why did McCartney want to show off his skills on The Masked Singer? "I'm not sure a lot of people know what I am capable of," he told People post-finale in May 2020. "Maybe they'll listen to some of my earlier music and that's kind of where it ended for them. So, this was an opportunity for me to pick back up."

If you've been wondering what else McCartney has been up to in the past few years, you've come to the right place.

Despite being a successful singer, Jesse McCartney actually had a different career path in mind — he wanted to become an actor. McCartney has quite an impressive acting résumé and made it clear it's something he hopes to pick back up in the future.

"When I'm done with this music cycle, I'm going to get back into acting," he told People in May 2020. "I'd love to do more writing and producing of my own, whether it's short-form content or more of an episodic kind of thing. I don't know, but 100 percent acting is what I originally set out to do before music became the center of my career."

On The Masked Singer, McCartney referenced some moments in his career where things didn't exactly pan out the way he planned. For instance, in his early 20s, he was supposed to star in The Last Airbender, one of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, and "three days before I was supposed to leave for Greenland, I got a call from my agent that I've been replaced for political reasons," he told People.

McCartney admitted that when a music single or television show didn't take off, it was a "really tough moment to get past," but he also recognizes he's "a lot more resilient" now. "When you're 21, it's a lot harder to handle it," he said. "There's just moments like that that happen in anybody's career. With any success, there's tons of failure."

After Jesse McCartney's stint on The Masked Singer, the artist revealed he is excited to focus on new music. In fact, McCartney "finished an album for the first time in like five, six years," he told People. "Right now the music is definitely in the front seat."

McCartney released two new singles in April and May of 2020 — "Yours" and "Friends," respectively — and it seems like he's opening up like never before. "It's a little bit more stripped-down, reminiscent of my earlier stuff," he admitted to Billboard in April. "It's pop music, so there will be some bops on there. But I think [my fans] will hear the vulnerability and the truth to it, because they're familiar with this period of my life as well as anybody, because they kind of grew up with me."

McCartney hopes his music will "connect" with a lot of people. "I'm really proud of it," he gushed. "It's certainly the best songwriting I've ever done, and the most thoughtful I've been about my songwriting."

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jesse McCartney and his fiancée, Katie Peterson, have to put their wedding plans on hold. The pair has been dating since 2012, and in September 2019, McCartney popped the question to the actress. "We were hoping to get married next spring," he told Entertainment Tonight in 2020. "We almost pulled the trigger for September of this year, which would have been terrible because it would have had to be postponed. Hopefully by next spring we'll be okay."

Even though McCartney and Peterson can't tour venues, the pop star has an idea as to what he wants their big day to look like. "I do want an outdoor wedding for sure, and I gotta have live music," he noted. "I want a huge band... I want the works when it comes to live music."

Meanwhile, McCartney and Peterson have been quarantining in Los Angeles, and the two decided to make some funny videos on YouTube to pass the time. The funny videos called Quarantined Couple document what they've been up to at their house — from yoga to naps, it seems like these two are doing just fine. "We figured while we are going to be in such close quarters together, we might as well make light of it and try to give people a good laugh," he quipped to People. "We really enjoy being creative, so this was the perfect opportunity to do that organically."

Since Jesse McCartney has been in the spotlight from a young age, he can relate to Taylor Swift, who moved to Nashville at 14 years old to pursue a music career. "I was watching Taylor Swift's [Miss Americana] documentary recently, and she said something along the lines of, 'People will always remember you as the person [you were] when you came onto the scene.' When you were first famous, that's the image that people have burned into their minds," he told Entertainment Tonight.

He continued to explain, "That really spoke to me because I feel so often people are like, 'Woah, dude you look so different.' And I'm like, 'Duh, that was 16 years ago.'"

Ultimately, that was one of the reasons McCartney wanted to be a part of The Masked Singer, so he could "break down these walls that people have built and compartmentalized you in." With his new album, the former boy-bander is hoping to "reintroduce" people to who he is today.

If it wasn't for Dreamstreet, Jesse McCartney might've not gotten his big break in show business. The boy band consisted of five members — McCartney, Greg Raposo, Frankie Galasso, Chris Trousdale, and Matt Ballinger — and one their most popular songs "It Happens Every Time" played on most radio stations in the '00s. 

Clearly, people are still longing for a Dream Street reunion, since McCartney revealed to the International Business Times that he still gets "emails from fellow Dream Streeters and from former producers of Dream Street."

So, is the group open to a gathering in the future? "The biggest problem is just scheduling and people's lives," McCartney dished in February 2019. "We even talked about if we were to do something, it would be, like, a single event or something. No one has time to do a full, huge tour. But at the moment, there's just so much else going on that it's just not a priority."

Even though the Dream Street gang might not be getting together anytime soon, McCartney revealed he still keeps in touch with one member. "I still talk to Matt from time to time," he told People. "He did hit me up halfway through the season [of Masked Singer] and said, 'Hey man, I know that's you behind the turtle mask.' And of course, I can't reply because I can't confirm to anybody. But after tonight, I'm sure I'm going to be hearing from him."