Jenny McCarthy has finally opened up about an unsettling experience at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ lavish 2006 wedding, recalling how what began as an innocent request to hold the couple’s baby daughter suddenly turned into an awkward encounter that left her feeling as though she had stepped into a world where she did not belong.

Nearly 20 years after the Hollywood couple exchanged vows at an Italian castle, McCarthy is revisiting the event with a story that offers a very different glimpse of the celebrations, describing a sudden silence among the guests, what she called the “Scientology stare,” and an encounter with the church’s powerful leader that she has clearly never forgotten.

Speaking on the October 15 episode of The Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Show, while chatting with former Scientologist Anne Gollert Hill, McCarthy claimed that Cruise had once “tried to bring me into Scientology,” before explaining how she came to feel so uncomfortable at his wedding to Holmes.

McCarthy was dating Jim Carrey at the time and attended the couple’s rehearsal dinner, where she said she was seated directly across from Cruise and Holmes, who had recently welcomed their daughter, Suri. As dinner was underway, a nanny brought the baby to Holmes, prompting McCarthy to ask whether she could hold her.

What happened next was the part that stayed with her.

McCarthy claimed that “the entire party” stared at her after she made the request, describing the atmosphere with a reference to the horror film Rosemary’s Baby.

“It looked like Rosemary’s Baby. I got the Scientology stare,” she recalled.

According to McCarthy, Holmes eventually passed Suri to her, but the room remained unusually quiet while she held the baby, with the conversation only returning to normal after she handed the child back.

“I thought to myself, ‘OK, I am in the belly of the beast right now’… I’ve never been so scared in my life,” McCarthy said.

The actress’s account did not end with the uncomfortable moment involving Suri, because she also recalled meeting David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology, whom Cruise introduced to her as his best man.

McCarthy said she made a joking remark congratulating Miscavige on being selected for the role, later acknowledging that her words could have sounded demeaning. She claimed he did not appreciate the comment, while Cruise laughed and attempted to cover the awkwardness.

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She also remembered watching Miscavige deliver a lengthy speech during the ceremony, saying she noticed Holmes trying to maintain a smile as she listened.

“I was watching Katie’s face of just, like, trying to smile and get through it,” McCarthy recalled.

Her observations became more personal when she described seeing Cruise and Holmes socially after the wedding, saying she would sometimes pull Holmes aside to check on her.

“You good, girl? Do you need any help?” McCarthy recalled asking her.

She claimed that Holmes looked “like a deer in headlights” at the time, adding that the actress seemed different as the marriage progressed. These are McCarthy’s recollections and impressions; they do not establish how Holmes herself experienced the relationship.

Cruise and Holmes married in Italy in November 2006, but their marriage ended when Holmes filed for divorce in 2012. At the time, Holmes’s attorney said her primary concern was her daughter’s best interests, while Cruise’s representative said the actor was deeply saddened and asked for privacy.

McCarthy also claimed that Carrey declined invitations to visit Cruise’s Aspen home because he believed the invitations might be attempts to recruit them into Scientology. Representatives for Cruise did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on her latest account.

Nearly two decades later, McCarthy’s story has brought renewed attention to a wedding that was already one of Hollywood’s most closely watched events, but the most memorable detail is not the lavish setting or the celebrity guest list. It is McCarthy’s recollection of an ordinary request that, in her telling, suddenly transformed the atmosphere around the dinner table.