A couple of months after E.A. Hanks released her bombshell memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, Tom Hanks has finally addressed his daughter’s abuse accusations against her late mother and his former wife, Samantha Lewes.
In the book, E.A. details a childhood marked by emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her mum after Lewes, real name Susan Dillingham, was granted primary custody after the couple’s divorce was finalized in 1987.
While Tom neither denied nor admitted what E.A., short for Elizabeth Anne, had gone through, he expressed his full support for his child and called himself a proud dad.
What Did Tom Hanks Say About E.A. Hanks’ Allegations?
Tom has nothing but good words for E.A.’s memoir, calling it a “pride” and believing she shares the same passion with him.
“She’s been very open about what the process is,” he told Access Hollywood at the premiere of his new movie, The Phoenician Scheme.
From there, he responded to the 43-year-old daughter’s claims about her alleged abusive mother.
“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’ kind of wherewithal in order to examine this thing that I think she was incredibly honest about,” he explained.
The Forrest Gump actor acknowledged that everyone came from “checked or cracked lives.”
“She knows that, and she leans 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 added.
Tom is confident that E.A. always has been a “knockout.” In fact, he revealed he had already realized who his daughter would be when she was just six weeks old.
“Their personality is on display right there,” the 68-year-old star continued. “Their temper, the way they see the world is demonstrated in their body language and on their face.”
What Did E.A. Hanks Say About Her Mother?
In her memoir, which was published in April, E.A. revealed she experienced emotional and physical violence when she lived with Lewes after her parents’ divorce.
Tom and Lewes tied the knot in 1978 and were officially divorced in 1987. After Lewes was granted of her kid’s primary custody, E.A. only had designated weekend and summer visits with her father.
“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,” she wrote.
After several years, E.A. experienced the horror of seeing their backyard full of dog droppings that she could barely walk around, a house that stank of smoke, a fridge full of expired food, and a mom that stayed most of the time in her “big four-poster bed, poring over the Bible.”
Sadly, it wasn’t the worse of it.
“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,” she continued. “My custody arrangement basically switched — now I lived in L.A. and visited Sacramento on the weekends and in the summer.”
During her senior year of high school, E.A. claimed her mom called her to say she was dying. Lewes died of lung cancer in 2002 at 49.
E.A.’s experience just shows that not all celebrity kids from well-known families have the happiest or most luxurious lives. Fortunately, she still has Tom to support her.
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