Last month, we reported that Alma Wahlberg, the mother of Donnie and Mark Wahlberg, had passed away at the age of 78 following a battle with dementia. Weeks after her death, Donnie became emotional as he gave an interview in which he remembered his beloved late mother.
“Your tribute to my mom was so sweet, Kevin,” Donnie told Entertainment Tonight hosts Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner. “I don’t mean to get emotional on you guys, but she loved your show. She’s a big fan of yours and of course Nischelle is like her daughter. You captured it so perfectly.”
“Your final words in that tribute where [you said], ‘You did good, Alma,’ that was the last thing I said to her,” he added. “… When you said those words, I lost it. I’m losing it a little now. Because that’s all she wanted to know… that she raised good kids and that she did a good job as a mom. That’s what I wanted her to know at the end.”
Donnie, who is one of Alma’s nine children, went on to say that after hearing this tribute, he and his wife Jennie McCarthy “literally cried for a half an hour.”
“You hit it so perfectly… You captured her so well. That’s who she was,” he said. “She had a love of life and a humility… that I know I got from her. I try hard every day to carry on that spirit.”
Donnie intends to carry on his mother’s legacy through his professional success, all of which he credits to her.
“It was in my mother and in my father I rationalized the successes of New Kids. Because I did not do anything in my short 18 or 19 years to deserve such success, but they did a lot in their years,” he explained. “My mother did so much for so many — things that she would never talk about or brag about — that I really believe that my success was the universe and God’s way of paying her back.”
“I always thought that it had nothing to do with me, that I was just a vessel to reward her for all the good that she brought into the world,” Donnie added. “I think she showed me and reminded me of that. It brings me tremendous gratitude.”
Rest in peace, Alma Wahlberg.
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