"Entourage Movie" producer Mark Wahlberg has opened up about his Christian faith, asserting that his relationship with God is the "most important part" of his life and crediting his massive success to that relationship.
"I pray every day and try to go to church every day. My faith in God is what makes me a better man," he said, in an extensive interview with Square Mile Magazine.
"It's the most important part of my life. I pray that I will live up to my intention to be the best husband and father than I can be."
When he was 16, Wahlberg, who struggled with a cocaine addiction as a young man, became a Christian after meeting a priest in jail while serving time in a Boston prison for robbing a pharmacy, assaulting one man, leaving another one blind in one eye and attacking a security guard. After he was imprisoned and charged with attempted murder, Wahlberg realized he needed to change, consequently turning to God.
"I did a lot of things that I regret, and I have certainly paid for my mistakes," he told the magazine of his wild teenage years.
Wahlberg also credits his faith for his massively successful career, which began in the 1980's with a short stint in the popular boy band New Kids on the Block. From there, he fronted Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and went on to star in several box-office hits. He has also been nominated for an Academy Award twice, and served as an executive producer for popular TV series Entourage, which was loosely based on his own life.
"I never would have been able to change my life and have the success and love that I have in my world today without my faith," he says.
In a 2013 interview with Parade Magazine, Wahlberg revealed that he begins his day by going to church each morning to pray because it creates a sense of clarity for him, and regularly seeks Biblical counsel when making big decisions.
The 44 year old producer, who was raised Catholic, has also stated that his childhood Priest, Father James Flavin, played a key role in helping him turn his life around.
"[Flavin was] the one person who never gave up on me," Wahlberg told the Daily Mail in 2009. "He was always there for me, through the good times and the bad. Back then there was more bad times than good. But he always had faith that I could change my ways. He was the first to recognize the actor in me."
Speaking to Square Mile, Wahlberg revealed that the other most important thing in his life is his family: the actor has four children with his wife, model Rhea Durham, who he married in 2009.
"It gets more complicated as they get older. Once they get to be teenagers I'm sure my wife and I are going to have our hands full," he told Square Mile.
"But it's great watching them grow up and it's interesting to watch their personalities develop. I just try to be around for them as much as I can and be the kind of father who they know will always care and love them with all my heart and soul."
