Mark Wahlberg ushered in his daughter Ella's 22nd birthday with a sweet throwback photograph. The actor took to Instagram to share a nostalgic snapshot of a young Mark cradling his baby daughter. In the photo, Mark wore a baseball cap and a gray T-shirt, while little Ella looked adorable with a pacifier in her mouth. The doting dad captioned the post: "Happy birthday, Ella. I’m so proud of you!!" The star welcomed his first child with his wife, Rhea Durham, on September 2, 2003, in Los Angeles.
The father-of-four has previously admitted he found it "a challenge" to raise a teenage daughter. "It's tough, but people say that they pass through it and they come back to you," he told People in 2018. "She wants to go be off and doing her thing. [There's] a lot of attitude, a lot of aggression, a lot of, 'You're the worst, you ruin everything!'"
Ella is currently a student at Clemson University in South Carolina, and is part of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. "She's just so happy there," shared Mark in a September 2023 interview with TODAY. "She's really thriving so I understand. Obviously, it's more difficult for moms, because when you have a child, your own existence revolves around taking care and nurturing this child and helping them grow. But you're giving life and they go off and do their thing, and hopefully, they come back and spend time with you."
The 21-year-old is currently in a relationship with her boyfriend James – and it seems even Mark is a fan. The actor described the young man as "fantastic", and that the young couple are "perfect for each other." Mark even gushed over James in a clip shared to Instagram. "I used to work out to keep the boys away from my girls, and now I'm working out with the boyfriend. Imagine that," he said. In the caption, Mark penned: "Ella is a lucky girl and I'm a lucky dad! He is a great young man."
In addition to Ella, the couple, who tied the knot in 2009, are also parents to sons Michael and Brendan, and daughter Grace. The family relocated from Los Angeles to Nevada so that Mark could give them a "better life." He admitted on The Talk that moving to Nevada had been an attempt to "give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams – whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer – this made a lot more sense for us."