Mark Wahlberg Reveals He and His Family Left California for ‘A Better Life’

Mark Wahlberg is riding his wagons east away from California, taking his family to “a better life” in Nevada. The Transformers alum recently appeared on The Talk and explained his reasons for making the move.

“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,” Wahlberg said on the show. “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.”

Wahlberg put his family’s Los Angeles home on the market in spring 2021, an impressive 12 bedroom, 20 bathrooms. He lived there with his wife, model Rhea Durham, and their children, Ella, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14, and Grace, 12.

“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,” the Boogie Nights star said. “I’m really excited about the future.”

His desire to balance work and being a father also played a factor in the move. “That is the biggest challenge,” he added. “Every free moment that I have, I’m at home.”

Wahlberg has been open about his parenting pursuits, with 2022 revealing a good deal about how The Fighter star wants to spend the rest of his life. This includes introducing religion to his kids, though he isn’t out to force any religious thought on them.

“They think Dad’s crazy, and he’s boring,” Wahlberg joked during an appearance on TODAY. “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,” he added.