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

Melissa Joan Hart knows something about marriage lasting.

Hart, 48, married her musician husband Mark Wilkerson2003. 21 years later, they’re still going strong.

“A lot of it is a commitment you’ve made, right?” Hart said Us Weekly exclusively in discussing her partnership with World Vision and the organization’s commitment to giving back during the holidays. “If there’s a spark and love in the beginning, then you can always go back to it.” So trying to remember that valleys or lows or times when you don’t feel connected, you can get past that and that makes the peaks even better.”

For Hart, it boils down to that. Going through the “rough stuff,” as she says, “makes the good stuff that much more valuable.”

“People change, marriages change,” she explained. “So I would just say that if you made a commitment and it’s just getting stale, that’s not a reason to end (the marriage). Work through things or be open, be honest. We build our marriage on trust. So I think trust is the foundation of our relationship. I think it’s a great foundation to build on.”

Hart previously shared a similar sentiment. She said last year that she and Wilkerson, also 48, had been to couples counseling and that the marriage “a lot of work.” She said U.S that their marriage is “some way of enduring it and living it and remembering where you came from.”

Part of that work was in lifting three children together. The couple share sons Mason, 18, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12. Although everyone has gotten 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 will mean focusing on the gift-giving aspect. She recalled her experience with World Vision, which enabled 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 living space they had now, the clean water they had because we built a well near their house,” she said. “They know how to farm, they are successful with chickens and sugarcane, and we gave them goats as a gift.” I know I’m very blessed to be able to go see the work that they do and see the programs and see how complex and sustainable they are.”

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

“I have to go to the water, I walk with a bucket on my head and I see a lot of women and school children,” she recalls. “And many children do not go to school because they have to walk with a bucket on their head or many girls who do not know how to handle their monthly cycle. So to be able to see that and promote it and support it, it’s just so important and so wonderful.”

This year, Hart is getting the whole family involved in his work with World Vision. At the organization’s suggestion, she and her family made 400 hygiene kits, consisting of toothbrushes, razors and more.

The timing was perfect. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, and as people were forced to leave their homes, they needed those kits.

“To see what they’re doing in the country for your neighborhood, for your local church, for people far away from Zambia, that’s Thailand, all over the world,” 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 everything from a goat to a bunch of chickens to backpacks to bicycles,” she explained. “This year I went on Giving Tuesday and donated bathrooms to schools across Africa. So when I left the last time, I noticed that the one thing I really wanted to help with next was education.”

Hart added that donations on behalf of friends can also make a good gift. She also showed off her handcrafted friendship bracelets that help fund the World Vision program.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi.