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Mark Wahlberg may be a father of four, but he still takes time on Father’s Day to give credit to his wife, Rhea Durham.
Wahlberg and Durham are parents to daughters Ella, 20, and Grace, 14, and sons Michael, 18, and Brendan, 15. Speaking to Fox News Digital, the actor admits that even on Father’s Day, he gives special attention to the mother of his children.
“I’m gonna celebrate the memory of my dad,” he shared of his plans for the holiday. “I’m gonna salute all the other dads, and then we’re gonna go right back and give all the credit to all the moms, because we are not s–t without them.”
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Mark Wahlberg has four children with his wife of 15 years, Rhea Durham. (Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Palms Resort & Casino)
He added, “It’s all about the moms.”
“We get one day,” he said of fathers. “Every other day should be Mother’s Day.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital at the opening of his new restaurant, Flecha, the “Father Stu” star also shared his hopes for his children.
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“I just want them to figure out what it is they want to do and then pursue it with all, with everything that they have, to be passionate about it and put in the work, and the best thing I can do is be an example and show them how hard I’m willing to work to be successful and to make my dreams come true,” Wahlberg said.
He continued, “And I just want them to go out there and work hard. If you work hard, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish. I try to encourage people, despite where they come from, the obstacles they have to overcome, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish if you’re willing to do the work.”
Mark Wahlberg poses with his family as he is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk during a ceremony in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on July 29, 2010. Top right is Wahlberg’s wife Rhea Durham, and children from left to right are Ella, Grace, Michael and Brendan. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Wahlberg’s family began when he met Durham in 2001. In a 2010 interview with People, the star explained that they met during a press junket – he asked her out, and she agreed, and she also agreed when he asked her whether she wanted to accompany him to church the following morning.
“So that was our first date: St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York,” he recalled. “I knew shortly after that she was the one, but I still had to make sure that I was able to be the man I needed to be.”
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Rhea Durham and Mark Wahlberg pose for a photo in 2003. (Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
At the time of the interview, his children were much younger — his oldest was seven years old, and his youngest seven months.
“I’m trying to be the best dad I can,” Wahlberg said. “I’m probably softer than I should be, but I’m pushing myself to be harder. What I do every day is pray for the strength to be a good servant, father and husband. I ask for the ability to raise my kids, to teach and protect them, and to be disciplined and firm and loving and nurturing. It can be a fine line, so I ask God for the strength to not lose my patience with my children.”
In 2012, Wahlberg appeared on the “Today” show, where he explained again how important fatherhood is to him.
Mark Wahlberg shown visiting daughter Ella at college. (Mark Wahlberg/Instagram)
“If I succeed as a businessman but fail as a father, then it’s all been for nothing,” he said. “That’s by far the most important role that I’ll ever play in my life — being a parent and being a husband.”
Wahlberg’s own father, Donald Wahlberg Sr., played an important role in his life as well — in a 2014 interview with Esquire, he called him “the best.”
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A veteran of the Korean War, Donald spent much of Wahlberg’s childhood working as a delivery driver, bringing lunches to schools. Wahlberg told Esquire that because he was the youngest of nine children, he spent more time with his father.
Mark Wahlberg in 1991. (BSR Agency/Gentle Look via Getty Images)
“Even before I was in school, I was spending time with my dad,” he said. “I would go to work with him when he drove his truck and delivered to all the schools. You know, both my parents worked very hard to put food on the table, so we didn’t get the kind of time that I would have liked with him, especially when they got divorced.”
He recalled the divorce happening when he was “10 or 11,” he noted that it was “pretty hard” on him.
“I remember sitting with him in the kitchen while he was listening to Al Jolson, having a Schlitz, smoking his Winstons, flicking the ash—you know, he’d be in the backyard or in the garden, and he’d flick the ash into the cuff of his pants; he didn’t want to flick the ash in his backyard,” he shared. “It was the first and only house he ever owned. And he bought it after winning a bet with a bookie.”
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He didn’t remember what the exact bet was, but said, “He won like fifteen hundred bucks. He loved the dogs, he loved the horses, he loved the track, loved to play cards.”
Mark Wahlberg is the youngest of nine children. (Getty Images)
Donald passed away in 2008. Wahlberg’s mother, Alma, died in 2021.
“She was as tough as nails,” he told Fatherly just months after her passing. “If we did something wrong, we were going to pay the price for it, the consequences for it.”
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He added, “What made her most proud was us really kind of turning our lives around and becoming really productive people and the family-oriented people that we are. She was most proud of the husband and the dad that I was. I mean, she always appreciated the successes and the things that I was able to do professionally, but the personal growth really meant something to her.”
