fbpx

Melissa Joan Hart Reveals Key To Marriage: ‘Giving Each Other Grace’

Photo from Melissa Joan Hart’s Instagram

Melissa Joan Hart Reveals Key To Marriage: ‘Giving Each Other Grace’

By Movieguide® Contributor

Actress Melissa Joan Hart shares her marriage advice as she celebrates her 20th anniversary with husband, Mark Wilkerson. 

“Twenty years married in Hollywood years…that’s like, you know, you count it like dog years,” she joked to Fox News. “I guess we’ve had, like, 140 years of marriage in Hollywood years.”

Hart and Wilkerson have been together for two decades, but the actress admitted it hasn’t always been easy. 

“It’s all just riding through the lows to get to the highs,” the actress explained. “You have to go through the valleys to enjoy the peaks. It’s just making that commitment and sticking to it and trusting each other and giving each other grace, really.”

Part of their anniversary celebrations involved a family mission trip to Zambia. 

“It was really eye-opening. It was encouraging,” Hart shared. “It’s a Christian country, and almost every household we went to they were praying with us. But they couldn’t understand why we pray. They couldn’t understand why we pray when we have so much. They’re like, ‘It’s weird to see a family pray that already has everything, like what would you pray for, or how would you pray?’”

Movieguide® previously reported on the family’s mission trip:

Hart and her family see their faith, and prayer, as an integral part of their service to the people in Zambia. 

“I think this is so important for our boys to see the work that World Vision does, to see that there are other parts of the world that are struggling, other parts of the world that are able to be developed and enriched and that that we can do so much good with our time, our energy, our money, to be able to help out people in need so far away,” she said. “I think it’s crucial to show our kids good charitable works.”

“I think we’re called to it and we just want them to learn, not only what gifts they have that they can share, but also to keep people in prayer, to be able to just know that as they grow they can be a shining light on other people and that it’s so important,” she added. “Our faith is a big part of what we do and why we want to help. We’re called to that.”

Hart and Wilkerson met in 2002 and wed the following year. They share three sons—Mason, Braydon and Tucker—and Wilkerson is a proud stay-at-home dad. 

Hart told HELLO! that her husband ultimately quit his music career after getting “upset about missing bath time” with their sons. 

“Without him behind me, I couldn’t do what I do and entertain people,” she shared. “I could not have asked for a better husband and a better partner in this world to raise these kids. He is a great husband, but he’s a fantastic dad, and he just lives and breathes those boys. Everything he thinks about is for them.”