All About Mark Wahlberg's Daughter Ella Rae Wahlberg

'The Family Plan' actor and his wife, Rhea Durham, welcomed their first child in 2003

Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham’s older daughter Ella Rae Wahlberg is “thriving” as she ventures out into the world on her own.

She's currently attending college on the opposite coast as her family but despite the distance, Ella shares a special bond with her father. She spent part of her childhood on her famous dad’s movie sets and attended the ceremony for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when she was 6 years old.

“I think I finally became a good and real man when I had a daughter. Women don't get the credit they deserve,” The Family Plan star told Redbook in 2012.

While Wahlberg wants to impress a strong work ethic upon his four children, he prioritizes spending time with his family and instilling strong values.

"If I succeed in business but fail as a father, then I've failed. You know, there's nothing like seeing the smile on my kids' faces. Laughing together. Playing. It's the best,” he shared with GQ.

Here's everything to know about Mark Wahlberg's daughter, Ella Rae Wahlberg.

Her birthday is a bittersweet day for her father

Wahlberg and Durham welcomed Ella on Sept. 2, 2003, the same day that Wahlberg’s sister, Debbie, died of a heart attack at the age of 43. While paying tribute to his daughter on her 18th birthday, he also remembered his late sister with a touching post.

"Happy B day my Ella❤️🎁18 years old 😚wow how time flies. So proud of you !! Always A [bittersweet] day," he captioned photos on Instagram. "Missing my big sister Debbie💔Ella's Guardian angel🙏❤️🙏😇."

In honor of her 20th birthday in 2023, Durham shared snaps of her firstborn through the years on Instagram. "Happy Birthday my girl! 🤍I wished for you for so long and then there you were," she wrote.

Her dad is protective of her 

The former Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch frontman looks out for his daughter's best interests, especially in dating.

"I realized early on that it's inevitable," he told Ellen Degeneres about his kids entering relationships. "As long as it's somebody who's nice and treats her well, and somebody that I can trust and respect.”

“The perfect scenario for [Ella] is to find one boy who she’s with forever and will treat her like a princess,” Wahlberg said while appearing on The Graham Norton Show in 2017.

Her teenage years were hard on her dad

The Father Stu actor previously opened up to PEOPLE about parenting his then-teenage daughter and admitted it was “a challenge” in a lot of ways.

"It’s tough, but people say that they pass through it and they come back to you,” he said in 2018. “She wants to go be off and doing her thing."

He added, “[There’s] a lot of attitude, a lot of aggression, a lot of, ‘You’re the worst, you ruin everything!’ "

Wahlberg was relieved to put the teenage years behind them, sharing on Live with Kelly and Ryan that “she's now really focused on academics, which is great. It took her a while to get there.”

She is a student at Clemson University

Wahlberg and Durham’s firstborn officially left the nest in January 2023 to attend Clemson University in South Carolina.

The former Victoria’s Secret model shared a solemn selfie from her seat on a plane on Instagram shortly after dropping Ella off at the campus.

"On my way home from my first college drop off," the mom of four captioned the now-deleted post. "The emotions are running wild. 😞🥹😊😵‍💫."

The married couple of 14 years have traveled to the Palmetto State to visit their daughter since she became a student with Wahlberg. “She’s just so happy there. She’s really thriving," he told Today.

She’s in a sorority

Ella is a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at Clemson, something that has been an eye-opening experience for her father.

As a teenager, Wahlberg dropped out of the ninth grade and didn't attend college. The Oscar-nominated actor later earned his high school diploma in 2013, calling it "a relief," but later realized he missed out on experiences by not pursuing a higher education.

"We just went to parents' weekend, you know with the sorority girls and the frat house. It was like, 'Oh my God.' I definitely felt like I never really had too many regrets about not going to college until I saw [this]," he told Today.

Ella frequently shares snaps of Greek life at the university, including tailgating before football games and hanging out with friends.

Despite her dad’s wishes, she got tattoos

While appearing on The Ingraham Angle in 2022, Wahlberg revealed that it took him seven years to remove his tattoos, a process he brought his children along for in hopes of learning from his mistake.

"I had a rosary around my neck, 'With the God I trust' across my stomach," he said. "I still thought, you know what, I'm not really supposed to mark my body. I was trying to really also get them removed, work and for personal and professional reasons. So, I took my children."

Despite his efforts to dissuade his children from getting inked, Ella got two tattoos.

"You got to figure those things out for yourself," he added. "I hope with technology, it would be [easier to remove for her], because it took me seven years [of painful laser treatments]."

She once drove over lava while learning to drive

When Ella learned to drive, she hit a unique roadblock behind the wheel in Hawaii. According to Wahlberg, they were in a golf cart following a path with lava on both sides, and he advised her to "slow down around the corner."

“She didn’t. She’s got music playing and everything and all of a sudden, she starts to go up on the lava, and she literally bails out of the cart, leaving me," he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Wahlberg clarified that it wasn't hot lava but "dry, sharp, dangerous lava." Still, the incident left Ella scared to drive on the road, something her father was “grateful” for.

“Before that, it was like, ‘Dad, let me take your car, let’s just drive around the neighborhood,’ and I was trying to give her all the safety tips, and she just wouldn’t listen to me,” he said. “So I’m glad now she’s changed.”

She has three siblings

Ella is the eldest of four kids, ahead of her brothers Michael and Brendan and younger sister Grace. Wahlberg credits his wife for keeping the family tight-knit and together.

"I owe a lot to my wife. She has helped me become the man that I am and created a beautiful life for me and our children,” he told The Sun in 2008.

Ella has a close relationship with her siblings, even spending part of the summer after her freshman year at Clemson hanging out with them on the lake.

“For me, family always comes first; I would do anything to protect them,” Wahlberg previously told Redbook.

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