Mark Wahlberg: Family is everything

The actor raises four children with his wife Rhea Durham – seven-year-old Ella Rae, Michael Robert, four, Brendan Joseph, two, and one-year-old Grace Margaret. The star is totally dedicated to every movie role he plays, but says nothing comes before his family.

Mark regularly got into trouble when he was a child and is determined to make sure his kids are better behaved, even though he admits he is often a “pushover”.

“I want to give my kids the world, but I also want them to appreciate everything, to succeed, to be good people, to enjoy life,” he told Boston Common. “This is my most important role. If I fail at this, I fail at everything.

“I think of myself as strict, though I can be a pushover. If my kids want something, they can usually get it. But they’re not getting away with stuff.”

Mark has had a well-documented troubled past – he battled a drug addiction and spent time in jail - and has regularly spoken of his regret for often violent and unruly behaviour in his earlier years.

The 39-year-old star was raised in a tough Boston neighbourhood and his parents struggled to make ends meet. He wishes he had paid more attention to his mother and father when he was growing up, admitting it could have helped him.

“For a long time I thought, like most kids, that my parents didn’t know what they were talking about and were completely out of touch,” he explained. “If I’d heeded everything they tried to instil in me, I might have avoided a lot of trouble.”