Mark Wahlberg Listens to Late Mom Alma's Old Voicemails

It’s no secret that Mark Wahlberg is passionate about fitness, but it’s his love for his late mother, Alma, that visibly moved him in an appearance on TODAY’s 3rd hour Monday.

The Wahlberg family lost their matriarch in April 2021, and the "Boogie Nights" actor, 51, revealed that he keeps her memory alive by regularly listening to her voicemails and other recordings.

"She touched everybody that she met," he told Sheinelle Jones, who interviewed Alma Wahlberg in a 2018 episode of Through Mom’s Eyes."

“I mean this so sincerely, Mark,” Sheinelle said about the experience. “She changed my life.” The interview with Alma, which was only supposed to last for 20 to 30 minutes, ended up lasting for hours, she said.

"For me, she was the true meaning of the word matriarch," Sheinelle, who has three kids of her own, said. "She always talked about how you would call her every day. And she would say, "Call your mother — I can't do her accent," Sheinelle said.

“That was pretty good. That was better than most of the people in 'The Departed' that weren't from Boston," Wahlberg quipped, referring to the Oscar-winning 2006 film directed by Martin Scorsese.

He went on to say that his mom was the true definition of hard work, explaining that she did what she had to do to provide for her nine kids.

"She was truly an inspiration," he said. "You caught me off guard there by pulling out that one, and I'm going to go watch that interview just so I can see her face. I mean, all I have now is the recordings and the voicemails that she left me, and I listen to them quite often."

Wahlberg shared the advice he now tells everybody that he knows who has parents who are still alive: "I remind them to call them every day, tell them how much you love them, and be there and connect with them as much as possible."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com