In 2018, Mark Wahlberg let the public in on his workout-packed schedule, and his mornings alone consisted of a 2:30 a.m. wake-up call, prayer time, a workout, two meals, golf, cryo chamber recovery and family time. Five years later, does the 52-year-old's morning routine look the same?
During a recent interview with TODAY.com, while promoting his "Wahlberg Week" workout series with F45 that is running Oct. 2 through Oct. 8, Wahlberg said that while he's still extremely busy, he's had to add one major task to his morning routine: waking up high schoolers.
The "Departed" actor revealed that these days, he wakes up at 3:30 a.m. and squeezes in gym and prayer time before starting "the process" of getting his kids up, which requires multiple trips "up and down the stairs."
"I've been going like, 3:30 wake-up, 4 o'clock in the gym, kind of finish that, get my reading and my prayer time done, and then start the process of waking them up, which usually ends up taking — I'm up and down the stairs at least three times to get the teenagers up, and I get them off to school, and then I usually start the rest of my day," Wahlberg explained.
Wahlberg shares four kids — daughters Ella, 20, and Grace, 13, and sons Michael, 17, and Brendan, 15 — with his wife, Rhea Durham. With their oldest in college, that leaves three teens in the Wahlberg household. That certainly explains the stairs marathon.
When asked if he could see any of his kids following in his footsteps with an early routine, Wahlberg says his youngest, Grace, has already started through her passion for equestrian.
"Gracie is already (getting up early). She gets herself up every morning. She gets ready, she's off to her barn," Wahlberg explained. "She's doing all the stuff that she needs to do with the horses and training and taking care of the animals. She is me to a T."
In June, Wahlberg told People that out of his four kids, Grace is the "most like" him through her rise-and-grind habits.
“I called her this morning at like 10 o’clock,” Wahlberg told the outlet at the time. “I wanted to catch her before she left to go to the barn. She was already at the barn on the horse. So she’s got my work ethic, for sure.
“She does not mess around. If you even think about getting her there late or missing something, it’s a big problem.”
Wahlberg tells TODAY.com that he doesn't want to "impose" all his habits on his children, but he hopes that when they get older, they might naturally gravitate toward a similar lifestyle.
That lifestyle in 2018 had a lot to it: After 8 a.m., he engaged in back-to-back activities that involved more working out, work-related calls and meetings, family time and a 7:30 p.m. bedtime.
Outside of having teenagers to wake up, Wahlberg told TODAY.com that another way his schedule has changed is by not always working out alone, but engaging in a fitness community.
"I had spent so many years working out by myself, you know, and it's what I needed to do, whether I was preparing for a role, or just to kind of feel better and in life. And then when I found a community where there was a support system, the energy, obviously it's incredible," Wahlberg, who is F45's chief brand officer, explained.
