Tom Hanks’ daughter reveals growing up with ‘a troubled mom, violence, and expired food’ after parents’ divorce

Elizabeth Anne was born into what she calls the “First (non-famous) Marriage.” Her parents met in the 1970s while studying theater at Sacramento State University. They fell in love and got married in 1978, later welcomed two children—Colin Hanks, now 47, and EA, now 42. However, their love story was far from peaceful. After five years of marriage, they divorced in 1985. Dillingham got primary custody of the children. Hanks, who later got married to actress Rita Wilson, had visitation rights.

According to EA, their lives turned upside down when Dillingham abruptly moved her and Colin from Los Angeles to Sacramento without telling their father. “My dad came to pick us up from school, and we’re not there,” EA recalls. “And it turns out we haven’t been there for two weeks, and he has to track us down.” EA said that she remembers little of the Los Angeles she grew up in, except for a graduation photo where she’s standing between her parents and brother. After the divorce was settled, she would visit her father, stepmother, and later her stepbrother. She recalled that her life between the ages of 5 to 14 in Sacramento was filled with “confusion, violence, deprivation, and love.” For EA, life there was far from easy.

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In her memoir, she described growing up in a house that, over time, became chaotic and neglected. “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,” she writes. EA wrote that although her mother was never officially diagnosed, she probably struggled with bipolar disorder, “experiencing episodes of paranoia and delusion.” Dillingham withdrew more and more into herself, spending most of her time in bed, reading the Bible.

The emotional episodes at home eventually turned into physical violence. “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,” EA wrote. At that point, the custody arrangement changed. EA started living with her father and visited her mother on weekends and summers. Despite their strained relationship, EA never fully cut ties with her mother. But their interactions remained distant until one phone call changed everything.

“My senior year of high school, she called to say she was dying,” Hanks’ daughter wrote. Susan Dillingham lost her battle with lung cancer in 2002 at just 49 years old. In The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, EA is on her way to discover her mother’s past, driving along Interstate 10 to piece together the story of the woman who raised her. “I am a kid from the First Marriage,” she wrote. “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.”

Chet Hanks, Tom’s middle child, hasn’t had the easiest life either. His struggles with addiction and controversy started when he was a teenager. Growing up with famous parents, he felt like he was living in a bubble. He eventually got into trouble with drinking and drugs, but now says his daughter has helped him stay sober.

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