Tom Hanks' Traumatized Daughter Elizabeth Admits Her Life Was Marred by 'Violence and Deprivation' After Parents' Divorce as She Moved in With Famous Dad Amid Family Crisis
Tom Hanks' daughter E.A. has revealed the trauma she faced after her parents' divorce in her new memoir.
April 3 2025, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
Tom Hanks' daughter Elizabeth 'E.A.' Hanks has lifted the veil on her childhood – and the picture she's presented of life with the beloved actor isn't pretty.
In her new memoir, E.A. noted she's the child of her father's first "non-famous" marriage and experienced "years filled with confusion, violence, deprivation… and love," RadarOnline.com can reveal.
E.A. revealed her home life spiraled downward after her mother moved her and brother Colin to Sacramento.
Tom welcomed E.A. with first wife Samantha Lewes, who he was married to from 1978 to 1987. Together, Lewes and Tom had two children, Colin, 47, and E.A., 42.
A year after his divorce, he married current wife Rita Wilson, who he shares sons Chet, 34, and Truman, 29, with.
Lewes, who was awarded primarily custody, then uprooted the family from Los Angels to Sacramento.
E.A. recalled her father having to 'track us down' in Sacramento amid the abrupt move.
In her forthcoming memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road, E.A. wrote: "My dad came to pick us up from school and we’re not there.
"And it turns out we haven't been there for two weeks and he has to track us down."
Far from the glitz and glam of Hollywood, E.A. recalled her home life being in shambles.
She wrote: "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."
Eventually E.A. and brother Colin were able to visit their father, step-mother Rita Wilson, and half-brothers Chet and Truman in L.A.
E.A. revealed her home life spiraled downward as the years went on.
She wrote: "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."
As her mother's health declined, E.A. said would spend hours in bed reading the bible.
While Lewes was never formally diagnosed, E.A. believed her mother was bipolar and experienced periods of extreme paranoia and delusion, according to People.
A source said the book is not an 'attack' on Tom but it has still 'been a hard one to swallow.'
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The passage continued: "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."
E.A. discovered her mother was dying of bone cancer when she was a senior in high school. Lewes died in May 2002.
While the contents of her memoir have sent shockwaves through Hollywood – and the Saving Private Ryan star was said to be deeply "saddened" by the book – a family source insisted E.A.'s memoir was not an "attack" on her father.
A family source told Rob Shuter's Naughty But Nice podcast: "This book doesn't attack Tom. But it does show that things were messy, especially in the early years. It's brutally honest – and that honesty hurts.
"Tom isn't denying a word of it. He just wishes it didn't have to be out in the world like this. He loves his daughter, but this has been a hard one to swallow."
Now insiders claim the Oscar winner is reckoning with how the memoir will tarnish his All American Dad image.
The source added: "Tom's image is squeaky clean. This doesn't smear him. But it strips away the polish — and that's hard for someone who's always tried to do the right thing."
