Actor and singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds said that his one-year-old daughter, Tristyn Naomi, was his inspiration and light in life. Wilds made the comments on They Call Me Dad, which aired on Sept. 14 on OWN.
Wilds met his wife, Christina Hammond-Wilds, on the set of The Wire when they were teenagers. The two dated on and off throughout their teens and early twenties before settling down and having their daughter, Tristyn.
The actor said that if the two had married anyone else prior to getting married to each other, they would have been settling. Now married with a one-year-old, Wilds credits his wife and daughter for being his life.
“I want to teach my daughter, one, to enjoy who she is,” said Wilds. “To enjoy her femininity, her Blackness but also understand that you are entitled to everything that the world has to offer just like anybody else. No matter gender, color, or anything.”
“I go to Christina for my ideas, and I go to Tristyn for my inspiration so they’re literally everything,” he added.
“Me and Christina met when I was about 15,16-years-old on the set of The Wire. So funny. She didn’t like me at all…I remember she was walking out of the classroom and it was cold, and I had this hoody. I took the hoodie off and gave it to her..That started our friendship. At first.”
Hammond-Wilds said that her husband is an amazing father.
“Just seeing how he deals with her and how he interacts with her, it warms my heart.”
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Wilds also credits the birth of his daughter for helping him recover from a dark place by giving him purpose.
“Tristyn was a very big part of the motivation to get pulled out of that dark place. That’s the push I needed to get towards the light.”
