Marky Mark is one adorable father! Mark Wahlberg appears on the cover of Esquire‘s fatherhood-themed June/July issue, posing with one of his sons sitting on his shoulders.
Once the bad boy of Funky Bunch fame, Wahlberg, 42, is now married to model Rhea Durham, and the father to four children: Ella, 10, Michael, 8, Brendan, 5, and Grace, 4.
The Ted actor looks relaxed and happy on the publication’s cover, smiling in a pair of dark jeans, a heather grey T-shirt, and black leather jacket. While his son’s face is hidden from the camera, his hands are rested on his father’s chest, while his jeans and boots-clad legs and feet hang over his father’s shoulders.
“I think the most important thing is to always be involved in every aspect of their life,” Wahlberg told Esquire about his parenting strategy. “To give them enough trust that they can share things with you. I don’t want them to be terrified of me, you know? But I don’t want them to think they can do whatever they want and get away with it, either, because they can’t.”
“The biggest thing for me is, you know, as quickly as I was able to turn it around, to get from there to here, from me having nothing as a kid to me here now, providing everything for my kids, it’s like, I worry that maybe they won’t appreciate things,” he continued. “I worry that maybe they’ll have a sense of entitlement. You don’t wanna give your kids everything without giving them the tools to be great people.”
Pick up the fatherhood issue of Esquire on newsstands on May 27.