Mark Wahlberg isn’t only amazing as an actor but he’s also a big family man as well. In fact, he is willing to do anything for his family.
With several different Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations under his belt, the American actor has plenty to be proud of. But there’s one area of his life that he is most proud of — his family.
In 2009, Wahlberg married his wife, Rhea Durham. Durham is an accomplished model and has been on the cover of French Vogue and Marie Claire. She even walked the runway in the 2000 and 2001 Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. Together, the couple has four kids: Ella Rae, 20; Michael, 18; Brendan, 15; and Grace Margaret, 14.
Over the years, Wahlberg has been outspoken about his love for his kids. He often shares hilarious stories and anecdotes about them in interviews and on social media. In an Instagram post on Jan. 26, 2022, Wahlberg shared a photo of the family at his daughter’s horseback riding meet.
He paired the photo with a heartwarming caption that read, “Her brothers came out to support even though it was playoff weekend.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Wahlberg said that he sometimes has to watch his kids’ sports games from the car. He said that his kids often don’t allow him to be seen with them around their friends.
“Me being in the public eye, there are pros to that, but there’s a lot of cons,” he said.
“My kids wanna have their own identity, you know?”
Mark Wahlberg (2018), (Vera Anderson/WireImage/Getty images)
“I’m not allowed to get out of the car at football practice or a game. I gotta sit in the car and watch,” Wahlberg said.
Wahlberg said that though he was upset at first, he wanted to do whatever he could to make his children happy. He said that it’s important to him that his children can have a normal life, and he wants to protect them from the dangers of the entertainment world while he can.
“At first I took it personally, because I wanna be there to support them, but supporting them is by making them feel comfortable in what they’re doing and them having their own identity too,” he said. “It’s very difficult.”
Wahlberg is willing to do anything for his kids, even if he has to embarrass himself in the process. He said in a 2012 interview with Red Book that he plays with Barbies with his daughters and sometimes lets them do his makeup.
“I’m game for playing dolls with the girls,” Wahlberg said. “If they want to play Barbies, I’ll do it!”
In the same interview, Wahlberg said that his daughters changed his perspective on what it meant to be a man.
“Having two daughters changed my perspective on a lot of things, and I definitely have a newfound respect for women,” he said. “And I think I finally became a good and real man when I had a daughter.”
Wahlberg made it clear that for him, his family is the most important thing in his life.
“For me, family always comes first,” he said. “I would do anything to protect them.”
Rhea Durham, Mark Wahlberg (2011), (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Giorgio Armani)
In April 2022, Wahlberg made a life-changing decision for the sake of his family. The “Transformers” actor revealed that he put up his colossal home in Beverly Park, Southern California, for sale with the aim of resettling his family in Nevada.
Wahlberg purchased his family’s two-story McMansion in 2009 at the cost of $8.25 million. The star set about renovating the property, which was completed about five years later. By the time it was finished, the spruced-up mansion boasted 12 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a skate park, a movie theater, multiple bars, a wine cellar, a wood-paneled library, a grotto, a fully-equipped gym, a basketball court and a five-hole golf course.
The more than six-acre property – deep in the heart of a star-studded neighborhood that includes the likes of other celebrities such as singer Adele, Tim McGraw and Denzel Washington – was listed for sale at a price of $87.5 million.
In July 2022, Wahlberg dished out $15.6 million to put down roots in The Summit Club, a high-end residential enclave in Las Vegas’ upscale Summerlin community. While the 2.5-acre plot of land the actor purchased is vacant residential land, it’s likely whatever mansion he builds there will be just as plush as the last one.
In November 2022, Wahlberg told Hello! he was very much “looking forward to our new home being complete,” and he added, “That way I can get out of the doghouse.” He also revealed 2022 was the first year he and his family had spent the year-end holiday season in the Silver State.
Mark Wahlberg, Rhea Durham and their children Ella, Michael, Brendan, Grace (2010), (John Shearaer/Staff/Getty Images)
It’s clear Wahlberg isn’t afraid of making big decisions for the sake of his family. He once said:
“My mission in life is to raise my kids right. With all the success I’ve had in the world, if I fail at that, my life means nothing.”
Appearing on the CBS show “The Talk,” Wahlberg opened up about why he decided to move to Nevada with his family.
Wahlberg admitted he wanted to take advantage of tax credit in Nevada and turn the state into the next Hollywood.
“I moved to Nevada where after this gubernatorial election, hopefully it will go to legislation and get a bill passed so we can get tax credit for the state – build a state-of-the-art studio here and make this Hollywood 2.0. I want to be able to work from home. I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there,” he said.
But more than making his Hollywood dreams come true, he wanted to give his family the best kind of life they could ever have.
“So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us,” he said.
“To go and to hopefully build a studio as well as a shoe factory and a factory for municipal. So, we came here to just kind of give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids, and there’s lot of opportunity here. I’m really excited about the future,” he added.
Grace Margaret Wahlberg, Ella Rae Wahlberg, Rhea Durham, Brendan Joseph Wahlberg, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Wahlberg (2022), (Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
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