Melissa Joan Hart He knows a thing or two about making marriage last.
Hart, 48, is married to her musician husband Mark Wilkersonin 2003. 21 years later, they're still going strong.
“A big part of it is the commitment you make, right?” Hart said Us Weekly Exclusively in a conversation about its partnership with World Vision and the organization's commitment to giving back during the holidays. “If there was a spark and there was love in the beginning, you can always come back to that. So try to remember that the valleys or the lows or the times when you don't feel connected, you can move past that and that makes the peaks better.”
For Hart, that's what it comes down to. Getting through “the hard stuff,” she says, “makes the good stuff more worthwhile.”
“People change, marriage changes,” she explained. “So I would just say that if you make that commitment and it gets old, that's no reason to end (the marriage). Work through things or be open and be honest. We build our marriage on trust. So I think trust is the foundation of our relationship. And I think that's A great foundation to build on.”
Mark Wilkerson and Melissa Joan Hart.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Net-A-PorterHart has shared similar sentiments before. Last year, she shared that she and Wilkerson, also 48, were doing couples counseling and that marriage is “Lots of work” she said we That their marriage is “about kind of holding on to it and working through it and remembering where you came from.”
Part of this work was in raising Three kids together. The couple share sons Mason, 18, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12. And even though they're all too old to wait for Santa every year, Hart looks forward to celebrating the holidays in “this new scenario we're living in.” “.
Part of that means focusing on the giving aspect of gift giving. She recalled her experience with World Vision, which allowed her to sponsor three children in Zambia. Hart had the opportunity to visit them in 2019 before returning last year.
Melissa Joan Hart's roles in Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Clarissa Explains It All are still beloved today — to everyone except the actress' three sons: Mason, Braydon, and Tucker. “They don’t want anything to do with it,” Hart, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 28 while discussing her partnership with World Vision and[…]
“After four years, we saw the growth, we saw the hope in their hearts and how different it was for them four years later, and the housing they have now, and the clean water they had because we built a well near their house.” she said. “They know how to farm, they thrive on chickens and sugarcane and we have given them goats. I know I am very lucky to be able to go and see the work they do and see the programs and see how complex and sustainable they are.”
Hart couldn't just witness it. She has to become a part of it.
“I had to drink water, walk with a bucket on my head, and I see a lot of women and school children doing that,” she recalled. “And a lot of kids don't go to school because they have to walk with a bucket on their head or a lot of girls don't know how to deal with menstruation. So to be able to see that and promote it and support it, it's very important and very wonderful.”
This year, Hart is including the whole family in her work with World Vision. At the organization's suggestion, she and her family manufactured 400 hygiene kits, consisting of toothbrushes, razors, and more.
Heartbreaking story. Melissa Joan Hart revealed that she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, were in the area after the recent Nashville school shooting and helped a group of kindergartners evacuate to safety. “My children go to the school right next to the school where there was a shooting today,” Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 46, (…)
The timing happened to be perfect. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, and when people were forced from their homes, they needed this equipment.
“So, to see what they are doing locally for your neighborhood, for your local church, for people far away from Zambia, it is Thailand, all over the world,” she said.
Hart encouraged those still looking for ways to help to check the World Vision gift catalog for ideas.
“The gift catalog is like everything from goats to a chicken set to backpacks and bikes,” she explained. “So this year I went to Giving Tuesday and donated pigeons to schools all over Africa. So when I went last time, I noticed that the only thing I really wanted to help with next was education.
Donations in a friend's name can also be a good gift, Hart added. She also showcased handmade friendship bracelets that help fund World Vision programs.
With reporting by Cristina Garibaldi.
