You probably remember Mark-Paul Gosselaar for his role as the quintessential California teen Zach Morris on the iconic early '90s sitcom Saved by the Bell. Today, it’s been over three decades since the world met the students at Bayside High. Gosselaar—now 47—is still acting, but in his personal life, he's graduated to having four kids of his own!
Shortly after the show’s end in 1993, the teen star married model Lisa Ann Russell, and later had two children, Michael Charles (now 17) and Ava Lorenn Gosselaar (15). The pair announced their split after 14 years of marriage, and Gosselaar announced a new engagement to Scottish-born advertising exec Catrionna McGinn later that year. Now married, they now share son Dekker Edward (7) and daughter Lachlyn Hope Gosselaar (6)—and they say their family is finally complete! Read on to see Gosselaar’s four children, and to hear their COVID quarantine update.
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For the Gosselaars, four kids is just right.
Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Feld EntertainmentWith four children around, the working actor and his executive wife most certainly have their hands full. But the TV star, who most recently worked in the ABC sitcom Mixed-ish, seems overjoyed with his sizable brood. In 2015, when the couple welcomed their daughter, the actor tweeted, "So in love with our new baby girl. Mum and baby are healthy and happy. 2 boys, 2 girls, too perfect!"
In a later interview with People magazine, Gosselaar shared his thoughts on adding to his family any further—and he didn’t mince words. “Four’s enough. Done,” he said.
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Gosselaar hopes his kids don’t go into showbiz.
Angela Weiss/Getty Images for Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS FoundationWhile some stars would be thrilled to see their children follow in their footsteps, Gosselaar has shared that he hopes his own kids avoid careers in Hollywood—especially while they’re young.
"The rejection that you deal with as a kid, I thought it was pretty blunt growing up, like, the reasons for why you didn't get [the role]," he shared in the Hulu documentary, Kid 90 (via People). He described his own experience of working in Hollywood at the tender age of 15. "The director was saying, 'The minute you walk through these double doors leading onto the stage, you're no longer a child anymore, you're an adult. You have to act like an adult,'" he said. "That's one of the reasons I don't want my children in it: because I don't feel it's a place for children," he added.
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Their COVID quarantine is very relatable.
Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Feld EntertainmentGosselaar and McGinn shared a family update during week nine of COVID quarantine on the podcast Kids Under Construction. And if you’ve got a house full of kids, you may recognize the Gosselaars' average day as not so different from your own.
The couple described the everyday struggles of remote schooling their youngest two children, who are currently in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. They discussed the challenges of “hand holding the entire day” through Zoom school: sitting alongside their son in class, reading him instructions, and participating in activities as needed. Gosselaar shared that even though his plans to shoot the Saved by the Bell reboot were put on hold at the start of the pandemic, the couple has maintained a disciplined schedule, “not only with ourselves but our kids as well.”
Gosselaar also shed some light on his parenting style.
Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Feld EntertainmentDuring that same interview, the couple also shared a glimpse into their parenting style. “I think if you compartmentalize it or put it on a graph or a chart, we’d have a little bit of everything,” said Gosselaar, referencing a range of parenting styles from authoritative to permissive. “We have expectations about their behavior—what’s acceptable or unacceptable,” he said, adding that his own upbringing was centered on respect for his parents as authority figures. “We definitely say no to our kids,” he added.
“We look at it this way: our children are their own little people. But in our house we are the core. Catriona and I are the center of this household. We’re not living in their house, we’re not living in their environment. They’re living in our environment. We have to do what we think is right for them,” he explained.
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