'I knew he was my forever': Chance meeting at the races led to Melissa Joan Hart's epic love story

Melissa Joan Hart was a huge star of the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to her starring role in the cult TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Hart played Sabrina Spellman, a teenager who discovers on her 16th birthday that she comes from a long line of witches and has inherited magical powers.

Magic spilled over to the star's private life during a visit to the Kentucky Derby in 2002, where she locked eyes on Mark Wilkerson, whom she married the following year.

Today, the couple are parents to three boys and remain happily married.

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Hart was born in the US state of New York on April 18, 1976. She starred in a TV commercial at four, which led to more work.

A starring role in a made-for-TV film followed before she appeared in the Nickelodeon series, Clarissa Explains It All, for four seasons.

In 1996, Hart won the starring role in the film Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which spawned a TV show of the same name.

Hart played the title role of Sabrina, who learns on her 16th birthday that she is a witch. The show ran for seven series and made her a huge star.

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Hart was at the height of her fame when she went to the 2002 Kentucky Derby, where she spotted Mark Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, the former lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock band Course of Nature, is also a songwriter who received a Grammy nomination for the Daughtry song It's Not Over.

Just this month, Hart took to Instagram to reflect on their first meeting and shared a photo taken on the fateful day.

"22 years ago right now... I saw this tall guy with a shaved head across a stage and after a shot of vodka (don't ask) and this photo was taken, I knew he was my forever!" she wrote in caption along with the hashtags #KentuckyDerby and #GettinLuckyinKentucky.

She said she told her mother soon after that she "met a boy from Alabama at the Kentucky Derby that she was going to marry."

Things moved quickly for the pair. Within months, Hart was on route to Alabama to meet her boyfriend's family.

His sister Sally recalled to People that the star made the first move.

"He tried to play it all cool, but he knew who she was. I screamed and I told my friends, 'My brother just met Melissa Joan Hart and she asked for his number'," she told People in 2014.

The couple wound up working together, with Wilkerson appearing in the seventh season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in an episode entitled "Total Sabrina Live".

Wilkerson played a member of the band that appeared in the studio in the episode, which aired in 2002.

That same year, the couple became engaged on Boxing Day, just seven months after their first meeting.

Hart touched on their engagement in a 2021 Instagram post, writing, "How it started... how it's going!! 19 years ago, on #BoxingDay, I was given a ring as a belated Christmas gift from the man I love!

"This year, in the same town, in the deep snow, we recreated this happy moment. Not the engagement, but the happy memory of being in a winter wonderland together. It was Mark's first time in Sierra snow and we both fell in love with the town and have lived here for 16 years now. Happy Boxing Day!"

They married in Italy in July 2003. Hart told Woman's Day in 2009 that the most memorable part of the wedding day was their vows.

"Mark was crying so hard and we were supposed to put our heads down, but his nose had filled up! I had my grandmother's handkerchief in my cleavage, so while the priest was speaking, I reached into my dress and everyone giggled — that was the only part of the day that didn't get caught on camera."

To celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in 2023, Hart posted a video on Instagram of their first dance as man and wife along with the caption, "The dance! To our song #NeverTearUsApart by INXS. 20 years later."

In another post the same day, she reflected, "20 years ago I said 'I Do' and I would do it all over again! To infinity and beyond!"

After marrying, they welcomed two sons in quick succession; Mason arrived in January 2006, while Braydon was born in March 2008. Tucker, their youngest, was born in December 2015.

Hart told Hello! in March 2023 her husband decided when their children were young to be a stay-at-home dad "because he was upset about missing bath time."

She said this allowed her to concentrate on her career.

"Without him behind me, I couldn't do what I do and entertain people because I would have to stay at home with the kids," she said.

"I could not have asked for a better husband and a better partner in this world to raise these kids. He is a great husband but he's a fantastic dad and he just lives and breathes those boys."

In 2018, Hart told People the secret to their long marriage was simply spending time together.

"We do day dates, we do lunches, we work out together a lot," she said.

After living in LA, Lake Tahoe and Connecticut, the couple decided to move to Nashville, Tennessee, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hart told Glamour in 2020 the move was in part to allow her children to grow up like she did.

Just last month, Hart took to Instagram to show off a series of photos of her eldest son heading to prom with his girlfriend, whose name is, wait for it... Sabrina!

"Prom 2024 is in the books! Mason and his beautiful girlfriend Sabrina (yes that's her name) had a lovely night celebrating the end of an era!" Hart wrote alongside the hashtag #MasondatesSabrina.

While Hart was a child star, she did not want the same for her sons.

"We don't really have them in the industry. I don't love the idea of having to drive them to auditions [and dealing with] the rejection," she told Us Weekly in November 2023.

"I mean, I think the rejection would be good for them in a way [to] keep them from being too spoiled, but no mummy wants their baby to go through rejection."

She also admitted in the same interview her boys don't watch her on screen.

"They want nothing to do with it," she said. "They think it's weird. And you know what, I kind of get that. They're like, 'I don't want to watch you on TV and I don't want to watch you kiss another man in a Christmas movie'."

Hart has continued to work steadily post Sabrina, appearing in numerous films and TV shows, including a four-season run in the sitcom Melissa & Joey, which ended in 2015.