‘Saved by the Bell’ Star Mark-Paul Gosselaar Reveals That His Wife Had No Idea Who Zack Morris Was

’90s teen hunk and Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar recently appeared on the Jennifer Hudson Show and opened up about his family life, his new NBC series Found and his days as cell phone-toting teen heartthrob Zack Morris.
Jennifer Hudson gushed about what a fan she was of the show, but Gosselaar had different feelings, saying, “A lot of that I don’t remember because it was at a point in my life where I wasn’t sentimental about anything.” As a matter of fact, he wasn’t even aware at the time what a hit the show was. He continued, “It was a Saturday morning show that we didn’t know that people were watching, because who watched television on Saturday morning? You watched cartoons and we didn’t have social media and we didn’t have metrics to tell you like the only way that we knew we were popular was when we’d go to mall tours. And we would go there and 2,000 people would show up and at a mall that was like wow, we’re popular and then you would, you know, sign for a few hours or you do car shows.”

NBC/Everett Collection
These days, acting isn’t even the primary thing on his radar; he is first and foremost a family man, stating, “I’m a husband first, a dad second and actor third.” He has four kids: two from a previous marriage who are now in their 20s, and two younger kids, 11-year-old Dekker Edward and 9-year-old Lachlyn Hope, with his current wife, Catriona McGinn. Explaining that his days revolve around making sure his wife is good, his kids are good and he works for a little while, saying, “At the end of the day, it’s all about kids, sports, and just being Dad and the reality of it all.”
How His Wife Discovered He Was a TV Star
He also revealed when he first met his wife, she had no idea that he was every ’90s girl’s dream crush — and said he wasn’t even HER crush.
“My wife had no idea what I did when we met. She knew my costar on another show, Raising the Bar, and she didn’t even know that I was on the show because her friend was on the show,” Gosselaar said, laughing that she always fast-forwarded past him just to see her friend and he was just “a guy in the way.”

Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Feld Entertainment
When not working, he is 100% committed to being a sports dad to his two youngest, revealing they converted a van into a mobile traveling sports center. He explained, “It’s like our tailgating machine. We’re traveling an hour and a half to go somewhere, and sometimes the games are in the morning, so I’m like, we can have coffee and breakfast on the road in the van.” His eldest two, 20-year-old Michael Charles, is a musician, and 18-year-old Ava Lorenn is attending school to be an animator.
Any regrets he has in his life? He wishes he wouldn’t have taken getting a higher education for granted. He said, “I think when I decided that I was gonna become an actor, I kind of put education behind me. I’ll go a little bit later, and what happened was life started happening and, you know, I got married very young and I had kids. But I wish I had sort of pushed myself harder to get a higher education.”
Another regret? That he never took anything from the set of Saved by the Bell.

February 2021
1990s Rom-Coms
Pop some popcorn and cozy up to feel-good movies and TV shows from a generation ago.
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