Mark Wahlberg's family values

Oct 5, 2007, 13:00 GMT

Mark Wahlberg - New York City, NY, USA © J. Bailey / PR Photos

Mark Wahlberg is putting his family before his career.

The Oscar-nominated actor - who has a four-year-old daughter Ella and 18-month-old son Michael with his long-term girlfriend Rhea Durham - wants to spend more time with his family.

Mark told People magazine: "I've been really focused on me for quite sometime now, and my children are definitely the priority now.

"I figure I got a few more years to work really hard and then if I can make a movie every year and a half then that would be nice - I don't want to work forever."

The 36-year-old actor also revealed he found it really difficult to be parted from Rhea while shooting new movie 'We Own the Night' because she was pregnant with Michael at the time.

He said: "It was at a really tough time, actually. I was about to have my second child. I had left shortly after the birth of my first child to go back to work, and that was a very difficult experience too."

Mark currently has four films in the pipeline, including M. Night Shyamalan's new film 'The Happening', and the sequel to 2003's 'The Italian Job' - 'The Brazilian Job'.

(C) BANG Media International