Tom Hanks Breaks Silence on Daughter’s Bombshell Memoir and Her Abuse Claims

Tom Hanks is speaking out about his daughter E.A. Hanks’ new memoir, “The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road”, which shares painful details from her childhood. In the book, she writes about emotional and physical abuse she says she experienced while living with her late mother, Samantha Lewes.

At the premiere of his latest movie “The Phoenician Scheme”, Hanks addressed the memoir for the first time. “It’s a pride because, I think, she shares it with me,” he told reporters. “She’s been very open about what the process is.”

Hanks went on to praise his daughter’s honesty and courage. “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,” he said. “Anyone who does that is a bold journalistic literary mind—and I’m thrilled I can say the same thing about my daughter.”

Inside E.A. Hanks’ Memoir

In “The 10”, E.A. Hanks, whose full name is Elizabeth Ann Hanks, shares her personal story of growing up in a troubled home. After her parents divorced in the mid-1980s, she lived primarily with her mother, Samantha Lewes, in Sacramento. According to E.A., their home was filled with emotional chaos and instability.

Reportedly, She recalls being pushed, shaken, and locked in a closet, and describes the house as neglected—mentioning old food in the fridge and a backyard filled with dog waste, per Entertainment Weekly. E.A. believes her mother may have had undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

After a particularly difficult incident in seventh grade, she moved to Los Angeles to live with her father and his second wife, actress Rita Wilson. In the book, E.A. calls Wilson her “other mother” and credits her with providing a stable and loving home.

The memoir also includes a 2019 cross-country road trip E.A. took along Interstate 10 to revisit places from a trip she once took with her mother. The journey helped her reflect on their complicated relationship and try to better understand her mother’s mental health.

Tom Hanks Responds With Support

Tom Hanks is known for playing loving father figures on-screen, and now he’s showing support for his real-life daughter’s decision to speak out. At the Phoenician Scheme premiere, he acknowledged how difficult it must have been for her to share such a personal story.

“We all come from checkered, cracked lives, all of us,” he told Access Hollywood. “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 leans into absolutely everything of it.”

Hanks and Lewes, who passed away in 2002 from lung cancer, were parents to both E.A. and actor Colin Hanks. After remarrying, Hanks had two more sons, Chet and Truman, with Wilson.

While Hanks didn’t comment directly on the claims about his late ex-wife, his message made it clear: he supports his daughter’s voice, her writing, and her choice to tell the story in her own words.