Melissa Joan Hart Shares The Secret To Her 21-Year Marriage To Mark Wilkerson

Melissa Joan Hart knows a thing or two about making a marriage last.

Hart, 48, is married to her musician husband Mark Wilkersonin 2003. After 21 years, they are still improving.

“A big part of it is the commitment you make, right?” Hart said Us Weekly specifically in a discussion about his partnership with World Vision and the organization’s commitment to giving back during the holidays. “If there’s a spark and there’s love in the beginning, you can go back to that. So you try to remember that the valleys or the lows or the times when you don’t feel that connected, you can ride that and it makes the peaks even better. “

For Hart, that’s what it comes down to. Going through the “bad things,” as he says, “makes the good things more worthwhile.”

“People change, marriages change,” he explained. “So I would just say that if you commit to that and it goes bad, that’s not the reason for that to end. [the marriage]. Work through things or open up, be honest. We base our marriage on honesty. So I think trust is the foundation of our relationship. I think that’s a good foundation to build on.”

Hart has had the same feeling before. Last year, she shared that she and Wilkerson, also 48, had been in couples’ counseling and that marriage is “a lot of work.” He told Us that their marriage is “about saying goodbye and making amends and remembering where you came from.”

Part of that job was raising three children together. The two have sons Mason, 18, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12. Although they’re all too old to wait for Santa each year, Hart is looking forward to celebrating the holidays “in this new environment that we’re in.” .”

Part of that will mean focusing on the charitable aspect of giving. He recalled his World Vision experience, which allowed him to sponsor three children in Zambia. Hart got the chance to visit them in 2019 before going back last year.

“After four years, we saw growth, we saw the hope in their hearts and how different they were after four years, the houses they had now, the clean water they had because we built a well near their house,” he said. “They know how to farm, they live well with chickens and sugar cane and give them goats. I know I’m blessed to be able to go see the work they do and see the programs and see how complex and sustainable they are.”

Hart didn’t just get it for himself. He should be a part of it.

“I have to take a bath, I went with a bucket on my head and saw a lot of women and school children,” he recalled. “Also, many children do not go to school because they carry a bucket on their heads or many girls do not know how to handle their monthly cycle. So to be able to see that and encourage that and support that, it feels so important and so amazing. “

This year, Hart is getting the whole family involved in his World Vision work. According to the organization’s proposal, he and his family made 400 hygiene items, including toothbrushes, razors and more.

The timing is perfect. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, and as people were forced from their homes, they needed those resources.

“So see what they are doing in your area, in your church, in people far from Zambia, Thailand, in all countries,” he said.

Hart encouraged those still looking for ways to help to check out World Vision’s gift catalog for ideas.

“The gift catalog is like everything from a goat to a bunch of chickens, backpacks to bicycles,” he explained. “So this year I went to Giving Tuesday and donated bathrooms to schools across Africa. So when I left for the last time, I realized that the thing I really wanted to help with next was the school.”

Hart added that donations in a friend’s name can also make a great gift. He also showed off his handmade friendship bracelets that help fund World Vision programs.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi.