Despite having left Los Angeles in 2022 to provide a healthier environment for his family, the actor acknowledged that the plans did not go well at all.
“I try to be the best father possible. I'm probably less strict than I should be, but I put pressure on myself to be tougher. I pray every day to have the strength to be a good servant, father and husband,” Mark Wahlberg revealed a few years ago in an interview. And he added: “I ask for the ability to educate my children, teach them and protect them. Be disciplined and firm, but loving and supportive. There is a fine line between those things, that's why I ask God to give me strength to not lose patience with my boys.”
The actor and his wife, Rhea Durham, are parents to Ella, 20; Michael, 17; Brendan, 15, and Grace, 13. With four kids at home and a hectic work schedule, which includes travel and filming schedules, the couple, who have been together for more than two decades, imposed a strict routine so that the situation did not goes crazy Or at least that's what they declared a few years ago. “Between 5 and 7 p.m. is bath and dinner time for the kids, and after all that happens, we eat alone, watch a little television and talk quietly. No matter how crazy things get, once a week, usually on Thursdays, we have our own date night,” the actor revealed when his children were still children.
However, in mid-October 2022, the couple decided to go one step further: the entire family left the million-dollar residence where they lived in Beverly Hills, California and settled in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Boogie Nights star said at the time: “I want to be able to work from home. I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and only made a couple of movies the entire time I was there. So, we considered it best to move, so I could give my children a better life.”
“We want to provide them with a favorable environment so that my daughter can pursue her dream of developing her love for horse riding, that my son can develop as a basketball player and my youngest as a golfer. That is what we thought about when making the decision,” he explained.
According to the New York Post, Wahlberg's Beverly Hills home, which he purchased in 2009, is priced at $87.5 million. The mansion features 12 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a home theater, a golf course, a skate park, a gym and a guest house. The change wasn't so drastic in terms of amenities: The Las Vegas Review-Journal revealed that the house they now live in is worth $15.6 million. What did change is the environment: the population of just under 31 thousand residents.
“We came here to give ourselves a new look, a new start for the kids, and there are a lot of opportunities here. I am very excited about the future. I have been very blessed and very fortunate. And it is because of the focus I put on my faith and my family that has allowed me to achieve so many things. Also, with failure, disappointment and loss, life is not easy,” the actor said.
Although he is quite careful about his private life and does not usually share images of his children on his networks, his wife does. She is proud, she uploads almost daily postcards of her children doing her favorite chores. There you can see the little ones in the family playing golf, riding horses or even winning horse races.
However, this week Wahlberg made it clear that despite the move and the supposed new life, nothing is rosy. “I have a teenager who won't stop playing video games. "I have a daughter who thinks she knows everything and who considers my wife and I to be complete idiots in many, many ways," the actor confessed to PEOPLE, at the Las Vegas premiere of his film Family Plan, which will be available on Apple TV+ starting this Friday.
