E.A. Hanks has released a revealing memoir that dives deep into her childhood experiences
E.A. Hanks, daughter of legendary actor Tom Hanks, has come forward with serious claims about her upbringing in a powerful new memoir that includes unsettling accounts of childhood 'violence.' Her father has since publicly responded to the release.
Back in April, E.A.—whose full name is Elizabeth Anne—published her eye-opening book titled The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road, which sent ripples through fans and media alike.
The 43-year-old is Tom Hanks’ only daughter from his previous marriage to Susan Dillingham, better known by her stage name, Samantha Lewes, who has since passed away.
Tom and Samantha also had a son together, Colin Hanks, who is now 47 years old. Their marriage ended in 1987 after five years and was described as bitter by some accounts.
Years later, Lewes sadly lost her battle with lung cancer at the age of 49 in 2002. After that, Tom Hanks married actress Rita Wilson, with whom he welcomed two more sons—Chet, now 34, and Truman, 29.
According to E.A., her upbringing was vastly different from the lives her half-brothers experienced. Her memoir gives readers a raw, emotional look into the complexities of the Hanks family, with E.A. suggesting her late mother may have struggled with undiagnosed mental health challenges that shaped much of her early life.
'Confusion, violence, deprivation, and love'
Among the revelations shared in the book, E.A. said her mother was granted primary custody of both her and Colin. Although they still visited their father regularly at first, those visits gradually faded away.
She wrote: "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."
Hanks had to 'track his kids down'
E.A. also disclosed that, at one point, her mother suddenly moved her and Colin from Los Angeles to Sacramento without informing Tom Hanks ahead of time.
"My dad came to pick us up from school and we're not there," she recalled in an interview with PEOPLE. "And it turns out we haven't been there for two weeks and he has to track us down."
'Emotional violence became physical violence'
E.A. described her earlier living environment in vivid detail: "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 sh*t 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."
She later wrote that the emotional pain she endured began to manifest physically. Then, right in the middle of seventh grade, the terms of her custody changed. That’s when she left Sacramento and returned to live with her father in Los Angeles.
What has Tom Hanks said about the book?
Tom Hanks, known for his role in Forrest Gump, finally addressed the claims made by his daughter’s memoir. He shared his thoughts while attending the red carpet premiere for his latest Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme.
The 68-year-old actor commented on the memoir by saying: "It's a pride because, I think, she shares it with me, she's been very open about what the process is."
He continued to speak candidly about the situation: "I'm not surprised that my daughter had the wherewithal, as well as the curiosity, as well as, I'm going to say, perhaps, the shoot herself in the foot, wherewithal, in order to examine this thing that she was incredibly honest about."
"We all come from checkered, cracked lives, all of us, despite the fact that part of it would seem as though, she would work for some international well-known firm with a copyrighted last name."
"She knows that and she leads into absolutely everything of it and I think anyone who does that is a bold journalistic literary mind and I'm thrilled I can say the same thing about my daughter."
He also couldn’t help but praise his daughter, saying: "She's a knockout, always has been."
When it comes to what inspired the emotional and eye-opening memoir, E.A. explained it was sparked by a six-month road trip she took back in 2019. This journey reminded her of a similar trip she had once taken with her mother during her teenage years.
"When I was 14, my mother and I drove across America along Interstate 10 to Florida," she said, "in a Winnebago that lumbered along the asphalt with a rolling gait that felt nautical."