"Boston Blue" star Donnie Wahlberg admits past mistakes shaped his marriage with Jenny McCarthy. (Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
"But intimate new relationships are usually where they surface," he continued. "Some of us are really good at working in a work environment or with friends. We can give advice, and we can handle things, but sometimes you get into a romantic relationship and suddenly things bother you that don't bother you in other parts of your life. And it's because it's the most vulnerable relationship you're going to be in, and that's where those vulnerabilities pop up."
McCarthy shares a 23-year-old son, Evan, with her ex, John Asher. (Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty Images)
In 2008, McCarthy told Oprah Winfrey that the diagnosis took a toll on their marriage.
"I felt very alone in my marriage," she said at the time. "He never sat down and said, 'What did you find out on Google?' There was never that connection of wanting to know and being there."
For the second attempt at marriage, Wahlberg said he and McCarthy make it a priority to "put the relationship first."
"I think both of us [put kids before our marriage] in our first relationships and we're not going to make that mistake again."
"That means doing work to protect and fortify the relationship," he said. "And we put faith in the center of our relationship too, and that is such a foundation for us, and it's just huge for us. But in any relationship, you have to put the relationship first."
"It's hard to always reconcile that, especially when you're a parent, but they say on an airplane, if something happens, put your mask on first before your children. And I always thought that was the craziest thing. We have to do our kids first. But the theory is, if you don't put your mask on first, you can't help your children. It’s easy to put the kids before everything and forget your partner. And it's understandable."
"I think both of us did that in our first relationships and we're not going to make that mistake again," he added.
Wahlberg said it's imperative to "put the relationship first." (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)
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Another piece of advice? Go on dates, said Wahlberg.
"Dates are fun!" he said. "All the things we do when we first meet, we stop. We eventually stop. We get complacent. We don't mean it, but you stop asking questions, you stop being curious, you stop putting in the effort, you stop sending flowers, you just stop. We just tend to stop because we start to trust that the relationship's solid and it's there. But I think if we keep giving it that fuel and that energy, that love that we started with, then I think it really does keep the fire going."
