Featured Image Credit: Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Parenting, Tom Hanks, Mental Health
Bec Oakes
Topics: Celebrity, Parenting, Tom Hanks, Mental Health
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Tom Hanks' daughter Elizabeth Anne (E.A) Hanks has revealed why she doesn't call Rita Wilson her stepmother in her newly-released book, entitled The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road.
The couple, both 68, started dating in 1986, one year after Tom divorced E.A.'s birth mother Susan Dillingham. They got married two years later in 1988.
They later had sons Chester 'Chet' Hanks, 34, and Truman Hanks, 29. Tom also shares Colin Hanks, 47, with his ex-wife.
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But, while E.A. has always got along with Rita and her stepbrothers, her childhood wasn't easy.
In the 42-year-old's memoir, which was released yesterday (8 March), she details a childhood full of 'confusion, violencem and deprivation' at the hands of Dillingham after she gained full custody of her and brother Colin following the divorce.
The writer revealed that the majority of her childhood was filled with 'neglect' after her mother relocated the family from Los Angeles to Sacramento without her father's knowledge.
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."
Speaking about a more hope-filled time, she added: "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."
She also noted that their new home started off as a 'white house with columns, a backyard with a pool, and a bedroom with pictures of horses plastered on every wall' but it wasn't long before it 'stank of smoke.'
She added: "As the years went on, the backyard became so full of dog s**t that you couldn’t walk around it.
"The fridge was bare or full of expired food more often than not, and my mother spent more and more time in her big four-poster bed, poring over the Bible.
"One night, her emotional violence became physical violence."
E.A. lived with her mum until seventh grade, when she allowed her to move back to Los Angeles while visiting Sacramento over weekends and summers.
She also recently reflected on her close bond with her stepmother in an interview with PEOPLE.
"When I say my parents, I really mean my dad and Rita because they’ve been together since before I can really remember. They’ve been together since I was 4 or 5."
E.A. also went on to say that she doesn't think of Rita as her stepmother.
"Rita’s not really a stepmother," she said. "She’s my other mother."
And she has the same mindset when it comes to Chet and Truman.
"I don’t think I’ve ever really referred to them as my half brothers, which I guess they technically are. Chester was five when I moved to Los Angeles and Truman had just been born, so neither of them remember a time when I didn’t live with them. We’re a posse."
Susan died in 2002 at the age of 49 due to bone cancer.
During a 2020 interview, Hanks described the experience of divorcing his wife as a 'horribly painful time'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.