Topics: Tom Hanks, Parenting, Mental Health
Tom Hanks' daughter has spoken about the heartbreaking experience she had as a child, after her parents divorced and she moved away from Los Angeles.
Elizabeth Ann Hanks (also known as E.A.) has alleged that she suffered abuse at the hands of her mother - Hanks' first wife, Susan Dillingham (also known as Samantha Lewes).
In her new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, E.A. claims that her childhood was full of 'confusion, violence, and deprivation'.
After living in Los Angeles, she relocated to Sacramento when he parents split.
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Writing in her book, Elizabeth said: "My dad came to pick us up from school and we're not there. And it turns out we haven't been there for two weeks and he has to track us down.
"... Eventually a divorce agreement was settled, and I would visit my dad and stepmother (and soon enough my younger half brothers) on the weekends and during summers."
However, the writer claimed that the majority of her childhood was filled with neglect.
In one section of the book, she speaks about the lasting effect her childhood had on her.
E.A., now 42, explained how she finds 'personal hygiene' difficult because 'only sporadically did I ever have an adult telling me to brush my teeth, for example, let alone how or why I should'.
She also said that by the time she was in her thirties, she realised she hadn't been to the dentist for over a decade.
She also suffers from excoriation disorder, which is characterised by excessive picking of the skin.
“I still pick badly though I work hard not to," said E.A.
Speaking about the abuse, she added: "One night, her emotional violence became physical violence.
"...She pushed me, shook me, pulled at my hair and locked me in a closet once or twice... she told me there were men hiding in her closet who were waiting for us to go to sleep to come out and do horrible things."
When E.A. reached the age of 14, she said her mother's health took a turn for the worst.
She lived with her mum until seventh grade, until she allowed her to move to Los Angeles, while visiting Sacramento over weekends and summers.
It wasn't long before Susan told her that she was battling bone cancer, and died at the age 49 in 2002 as a result.
E.A. went on to explain that she believes her mother had undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
