What did Tom Hanks' daughter write about her late mother in new memoir? Actor reacts to E.A. Hanks' abusive childhood claims

Tom Hanks and his late wife, Samantha Lewes’ daughter, Elizabeth Ann Hanks, published her memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, in April 2025. In the memoir, she detailed her difficult childhood. As quoted by The New York Post, she wrote:

“I am a kid from the First (non-famous) Marriage. My only memories of my parents in the same place at the same time are Colin’s high school graduation, then my high school graduation.”

She continued:

“I was born in Burbank, but after my parents split up, my mother took my older brother and me to live in Sacramento. I have few memories of the early years in Los Angeles. 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, but from 5 to 14, years filled with confusion, violence, deprivation, and love, I was a Sacramento girl. I lived in a white house with columns, a backyard with a pool, and a bedroom with pictures of horses plastered on every wall. ”

"As the years went on, the backyard became so full of dog s--- that you couldn’t walk around it, the house stank of smoke. 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, and in the aftermath I moved to Los Angeles, right smack in the middle of the seventh grade. My custody arrangement basically switched — now I lived in L.A. and visited Sacramento on the weekends and in the summer."

Hanks’ daughter also mentioned an anecdote, writing that their fridge was usually either empty or filled with spoiled food, and her mother spent her time reading the Bible. She also described a night when things turned physically violent after a pattern of emotional abuse.

After that incident, she ended up moving to Los Angeles during her seventh-grade year. Tom Hanks starred in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. On May 29, 2025, he spoke to Access Hollywood, where he was asked about Ann Hanks’ memoir. He said:

“It’s a pride because I think she shares it you know with me she's very open about what the process is.”

He went on:

“If you've had kids, you realize that you see who they are when they are about 6 weeks old. Their personality is on display right there. Their temper, the way they see the world is demonstrated in their body language and on their face and I am not surprised that my daughter had the wherewithal as well as the curiosity.”

When did Tom Hanks and Samantha Lewes part ways? E.A. Hanks reflects on visiting his father’s second wife

Tom Hanks said he felt his daughter was sincere in her memoir, pointing out that everyone comes from imperfect backgrounds. Even though her life might have looked polished from the outside because of their well-known family name, she didn’t shy away from sharing the full picture.

He admired how she embraced every part of her story and felt proud of her for approaching it with both courage and insight. Although Tom Hanks and Samantha Lewes separated in 1985, their divorce was finalised in 1987.

In the interim period, Ann Hanks and her brother Colin Hanks moved to Sacramento with their mother. Ann Hanks wrote in her memoir:

“When I was 14, my mother and I drove across America along Interstate 10 to Florida n a Winnebago that lumbered along the asphalt with a rolling gait that felt nautical.”

Speaking to People Magazine, Elizabeth Ann Hanks spoke about Tom Hanks’ second wife, Rita Wilson. She explained that when she talked about her parents, she mainly referred to her father and Wilson. According to her:

“Rita's not really a stepmother, she's my other mother.”

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She also shared that she never really thought of her younger brothers as half-brothers. Chester was a toddler and Truman was an infant when she moved to Los Angeles. She felt that even though all of them were now trying to figure out their paths in life, they remained close like a tight-knit group.

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