From ‘Sabrina’ to Supermom: Melissa Joan Hart’s Family First Approach

Melissa Joan Hart attends the Jam for Janie GRAMMY Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 4, 2024. Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Janie's Fund

Actress Melissa Joan Hart is also a mother of three, and balancing a career and family doesn’t come without challenges for the sitcom star.

Following the wrap-up of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” in 2003,  Hart continued to appear on television and film. But after having two sons with husband Mark Wilkerson, the couple wanted to find a permanent place to raise their family.

It wasn’t long after they settled in Connecticut before Hart was called back to Los Angeles to film “Melissa & Joey.”

“So for the first two years, I lived in California, and they were in Connecticut. They would come out and visit . . . we wouldn’t go more than two weeks without seeing each other, but that was really, really hard on me,” she shared during an interview with Fox News.

After getting pregnant with her third son in 2012, Hart decided that the family needed to stay together, prompting them all to move back to Los Angeles.

“So it was all sort of, like, year by year, sort of: Where should we be? How are we gonna do this as a family? And making decisions about my career, balancing out with our family,” she said.

“And, you know, sometimes I turned down jobs just to stay at home and just so the kids could be at home, or sometimes I would leave for chunks of time, which was heartbreaking and really hard for me.

“It was really difficult. But you know that mom guilt is real,” she said, regardless of how much time she spends with her kids.

“That’s the thing about my job; I get to be a full-time parent when I’m not working. Right now, I’m in West Virginia. I’m away from them for three weeks, but they know it’s [these] three weeks, and then the next three weeks we’re all together.”

Ultimately, the “Drive Me Crazy” star believes the challenges of balancing motherhood and acting are part of the journey.

“It’s this weird balance that always, you know, you’re never sure if you’re getting it right, but I think that’s just parenthood,” she said. 

First of 8 Siblings

Hart’s devotion to her family can be traced back to her childhood, as being the first-born of eight children came with many expectations and responsibilities for the actress.

“I felt like I had to behave to be a role model for them,” Hart told People in August. “You know, the money that I made on commercials and ‘Clarissa’ or any of my acting jobs, it always went to the family.”

“I got to go pick out a Barbie and like, as I got older, some people were like, ‘Oh, that’s not right. You should have kept your money,’” she added.

“And I was like ... I would rather put food on the table and make sure my siblings had good clothes and bicycles for Christmas, you know, things like that. So, I definitely felt like I wanted to be responsible for them.”

Among Hart’s responsibilities included the financial and physical support she provided for her siblings. As a result, she said the experience influenced her parenting style later in life.

“I was a better mom for it,” she said.

Major Roles

Born on April 18, 1976, in Smithtown, New York, Melissa Joan Hart got her first major role in the Emmy Award-winning TV film “Christmas Snow” at 10 years old. In 1991, she landed another starring role as the title character in “Clarissa Explains it All,” her performance in the latter winning her three Young Artist Awards.

However, Hart’s best-known role was as the title character in the 1996 television film “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” followed by the television series of the same name. The show ended in 2003 after seven seasons.

In 2010, Hart landed a starring role in the ABC sitcom “Melissa & Joey” alongside Joey Lawrence. The show ran for four seasons before ending in 2015.

Some of her more recent projects include 2016’s “God’s Not Dead 2,” her podcast “What Women Binge,” which she co-hosts with Amanda Lee, and the 2024 lifetime film “The Bad Guardian.”