Mark Wahlberg Moved To Nevada For His Children | He Wants To Give Them a Better Life And Help Them Follow Their Dreams

The 51-year-old actor is dad to daughters Grace, 12, and Ella, 19, and sons Brendan, 14, and Michael, 16.

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Leon Bennett

By Shruti Menon

October 18, 2022

Posted October 18, 2022

Mark Wahlberg is putting family first. The Daddy’s Home star shares kids Ella Rae, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14 and Grace, 12, with wife Rhea Durham. The Massachusetts native decided to move his family of six to Nevada “to give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids and there’s a lot of opportunity here,” the 51-year-old actor told The Talk recently. They made the shift "after this gubernatorial election, hopefully, we go to legislation and get a bill passed so we can get tax credits for the state, build a state-of-the-art studio here and make this Hollywood 2.0." The Uncharted star wants "to be able to work from home."

"I want to be able to work from home," the actor said. “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. 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.” "Every free moment that I have, I'm at home," Wahlberg said, adding "I'm really excited about the future," he added.

The faith-driven father describes himself as a Catholic but doesn't believe in forcing his religious beliefs onto his kids. He drew parallels between his film Father Stu and his own life speaking on the TODAY show "They think Dad's crazy, and he's boring," the actor joked to Hoda Kotb. "But even with my faith, I don't force it on them. But they know that Dad can't start the day without being in prayer, can't start the day without reading my Scripture or going to Mass. And hopefully, instead of forcing that on them, they'll say, 'Well, if it works for Dad, maybe it'll work for us,' and they'll kind of gravitate towards it on their own," Wahlberg added.

The Ted actor joked that his kids don't really see him as a "cool" dad and just like most kids Wahlberg’s kids are still “embarrassed” by him and his past work. When the kids saw a clip of him on stage with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, the hip-hop group he formed in 1991, they were “mortified.” “Even the stuff that that other people think is, like, cool in 2022, like movies and stuff? ‘Dad, it’s so dumb. Dad, that’s terrible,’” he told host Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen Show. “They’re not my biggest fans.” But there's no doubt that the love is all there!