Mark Wahlberg’s favourite holiday is Thanksgiving because of his "troubled past".
The 45-year-old actor actor carries a permanent criminal record due to an assault he carried out at the age of 16 when he hit a Vietnamese man in the head with a stick while trying to steal alcohol. He was convicted for the crime and served 45 days of his two-year sentence in an adult prison due to the severity of the attack and the racist language he used.
Now, the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ star has said Thanksgiving – the American holiday in which many people celebrate the things they are thankful for – is "the most important holiday" for him to recognise how far he’s come.
Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, the star said: "I don’t want my wife to hear this but for me it’s the most important holiday. It’s just always been since I was very young and because of my troubled past, the one holiday that I missed was Thanksgiving. So for me, it’s the most important.
"We just had a mini Thanksgiving last week in Boston with my mom and some of my brothers, so it was really nice getting everybody together."
Meanwhile, the ‘Patriots’ Day’ actor has said he’s keen to make sure his four children – Ella, 13, Michael, nine, Brendan, seven, and Grace, six, whom he shares with model wife Rhea Durham – don’t go down the same path he did, and said he will discuss with them his tough teenage years growing up in Boston, which included abusing drugs from the age of just 13, when they’re old enough to understand.
He said previously: "I want them to learn that if you’re good and you do good, then good things happen and if you lie or you get in trouble and try to cover it up with a lie, there’s a snowball effect … you have to be responsible, talk nice, be kind to each other, clean up behind yourself. When they get a little older, I’ll tell them where I’ve come from and what I’ve had to do to overcome some pretty big odds."
Mark Wahlberg’s favourite holiday
