Melissa Joan Hart shares a secret to her 21-year marriage to Mark Wilkerson

Melissa Joan Hart Knows a thing or two about staying in a marriage.

Hart, 48, married her musician husband Mark Wilkersonin 2003. 21 years later, they’re still going strong.

“A big part of it is the commitment you take, right?” Hart told Us Weekly Exclusively in a conversation about her partnership with World Vision and the organization’s commitment to giving back during the holidays. “If there’s a spark and there’s love in the beginning, then you can always come back to it. So you try to remember that the valleys or the lows or the times when you don’t feel as connected, you can ride it and it makes the peaks even better.”

For Hart, that’s what it comes down to. Going through the “rough stuff,” as she says, “makes the good stuff that much more worthwhile.”

“People change, marriages change,” she explained. “So I’m just saying that if you made that commitment and it’s just delayed, that’s no reason to end (the marriage). Work on things or be open, be honest. We base our marriage on trust. So I think trust is the foundation of our relationship. I think it’s an excellent foundation to build it on.”

Hart has previously shared a similar sentiment. Last year, she shared that she and Wilkerson, also 48, were in couples counseling and that marriage is “a lot of work.” she told us that their marriage is “about kind of sticking it out and working through it and remembering where you came from.”

Part of this work was recruiting Three children together. The two share sons Mason, 18, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12. Although they’re all too old to wait for Santa every year, Hart looks forward to celebrating the holidays in “this new scenario that we’re in. .”

Part of that means focusing on the giving aspect of gift giving. She recalled her experience with World Vision, which allowed her to sponsor three children in Zambia. Hart had a chance to visit them in 2019 before returning last year.

“After four years we saw the growth, we saw the hope in their hearts and how different it was for them four years later, the housing they had now, the clean water they had because we built a well next to their house.” she said “They know how to farm, thrive with chickens and sugarcane and we gave them goats as a gift. I know I’m very blessed to be able to go and see the work they do and see the programs and see how complex and sustainable they are.”

Hart didn’t just get to witness it. She has to be a part of it.

“I have to do the water, walk with a bucket on my head and see a lot of women and school children doing,” she recalled. “And a lot of kids don’t go to school because they have to go with the bucket on their head or a lot of girls don’t know how to deal with their periods. So to be able to see that and promote that and support that, it just feels so Important and so wonderful.”

This year, Hart is getting the whole family involved in her work with World Vision. According to the organization’s proposal, she and her family prepared 400 hygiene kits, consisting of toothbrushes, razors and more.

The timing happened to be perfect. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, and when people were forced to leave their homes, they needed these kits.

“So to see what they’re doing at home for your neighborhood, for your local church, for people as far away as Zambia, this is Thailand, all over the country,” she said.

Hart encouraged those still looking for ways to help to check out World Vision’s gift catalog for ideas.

“The gift catalog is like anything, from a goat to a bunch of chickens to backpacks to bicycles,” she explained. “So this year I went on Giving Tuesday and donated bathrooms to schools across Africa. So when I went last time, I noticed that the only thing I really wanted to help with was education.”

Hart added that donations in a friend’s name can also make a good gift. She also showed off her handmade friendship bracelets that help fund World Vision programs.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi.