The former boy band member told ‘Entertainment Tonight’ that his mom has the piece of hair in a Ziploc bag
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Donnie Wahlberg in 2024 (left) and 1989 (right).
Donnie Wahlberg has a special keepsake from his ’90s boy band days.
During a chat with Entertainment Tonight, the actor, 55, revealed that his mom kept his rattail from his New Kids on the Block days after he cut it off.
“Probably have a little less hair than I did there,” Donnie said in the interview shared on Dec. 15. In the clip, he’s shown a video of himself from 1990. “But I still wore hats and bandanas. No more rattail. My mom actually kept the rattail when I finally cut it. She put it in a Ziploc bag and kept it.”
Donnie also shared that he still has his nose pierced but “you can’t see it, thank goodness.”
“They probably wouldn’t have cast me on Blue Bloods,” he joked.
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Donnie Wahlberg in 1989.
The star went on to reflect on his previous “bad boy” image.
“Everyone thinks that New Kids were designed for me to be the bad boy,” he said of the group, which was formed in 1984. “We were just who we were. There’s no guidebook on how to become famous when you’re 18, 19 years old. With social media, I don’t know what it would be like to be a kid or young person now becoming famous.”
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Donnie might have ditched the hairstyle, but his schedule remains non-stop to this day.
As a result, the star, who who has nine siblings including Mark Wahlberg, admitted in a recent interview with Variety that he should better prioritize time with his brothers and sisters.
“It’s not that I’m not committed to my family, but I live in a different state than my siblings,” the Band of Brothers actor said. “I think when you come from a big family, you can stay close, but my career has taken me all over the world, and it still does.”
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Donnie continued: “My sister always calls and says, ‘Come on, Mom’s gone now, let’s all fly to Boston and do Thanksgiving.’ A lot of times I’m like, ‘It’s a long flight. I’ve been flying back and forth, filming and going on tour. I just want to sit at home and put on the fireplace and be with my wife and my dogs.’ ”
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He then noted: “Maybe I need to hop on a plane and do a little bit more of those occasions with the siblings and encourage Mark [Wahlberg] to get on a plane and do the same.”
Donnie and Mark, 53, are the eighth and ninth siblings, respectively, following Michelle, Arthur, Paul, Jim, Robert, Tracey, and Debbie, who died in 2003 at age 43.
Credit: Original article published here.