Secret affair, son’s drug addiction, wife’s cancer: all about Tom Hanks’ complicated marriage

Tom Hanks and the future love of his life Rita Wilson first met on the set of the series “Bosom Friends”, where after a little flirtation they disappeared from each other’s lives for a long time. Notably, Tom fell in love with his future wife through the television screen, seeing her on the sitcom The Brady Family in 1972 when he was just 16 years old. Because of the meeting with Rita, the rising Hollywood star took up acting – such a bright blonde dug into his heart.

A few years later, specifically in 1984, fate brought them together again – on the set of the comedy “Volunteers”, where Hanks played the main role and Rita Wilson created a couple for him. Feelings between the young people immediately flared up, despite the fact that both of them were not single at the time.

Tom tied the knot with American actress Samantha Lewis in 1978. The actor himself later admitted that it was too early for marriage: the relationship quickly became stale, and the couple stayed together only for the sake of their two children. Hanks’ career added difficulties: he only gained popularity and greedily took on any project, not devoting time to his family at all.

Rita was just getting ready to get married, but Tom managed to convince her to call off the engagement. Wilson did and… waited three painful years before Hanks decided to leave the family. “She, such a beauty, could have married ten times, but she waited three years before I decided to leave the family. And I wasn’t a star then, I mainly played in episodes, on TV. In general, the groom was so-so, “the actor admitted a few years later.

Despite all the “buts”, Rita remembers the beginning of their relationship with wonder. “I’ll never forget us standing on the corner of 57th and 5th in New York. We held hands and waited for the light to turn green. And he looked at me and said, ‘I just want you to know that you’re never going to have to change anything about yourself to be with me,'” Wilson said. Oh, it’s hard to hold back the envy, imagining this big-city romance. Agreed: every girl dreams of meeting her Tom.

In 1987, Hanks became officially single and married Wilson a year later. Once Rita agreed to sacrifice herself for love, Tom reciprocated in kind. The future wife of the actor was born in a patriarchal Greek family, and in order to marry her, Hanks had to convert to Orthodoxy, although he was a Catholic from birth. An interesting fact is that the film “My Big Greek Wedding” is based on the story of Hanks’ acquaintance with the family of his chosen one.

Two years after their wedding, Tom and Rita became parents to a son, Chester, and two years later, his younger brother, Truman, was born.

Marriage to Wilson inspired Hanks and his career took off. Very soon, the actor became a real celebrity, while Rita devoted herself fully to her family. However, do not feel sorry for the artist’s wife: according to them, this arrangement suited both of them.

Tom repeatedly repeated in his interviews that his life with Rita is like a fairy tale. “The only reason my wife and I fight is when we find out who loves who more. True, believe me, we have an idyll. And there is no special secret. It’s just that our feelings are so strong that it’s hard for me to define Rita. She is more than a wife, girlfriend, mother, lover for me!” – this is how the famous actor describes his marriage.

And yet there were spoonfuls of honey in this cask of honey – they went through many hardships together. In 2015, Rita was diagnosed with breast cancer. For nine months, Tom did not leave his wife for a single step, he supported her in everything, helped her not to give up and fight the disease. When the disease subsided, the couple, it seems, experienced a crisis in their relationship for the first time in many years of marriage and were on the verge of divorce.

“Tom moves from one film project to another without a break. For him, work is a kind of escape from routine. When Rita asks Tom to slow down, take a break, he promises, but he never does,” an insider said at the time, adding that the star couple was caught in a vicious circle.

Fortunately, they managed to get out of this circle. New problems awaited Rita and Toma where they did not expect. Their son Chester was addicted to drugs: it took a lot of effort and teamwork to get this guy out of this swamp. In 2020, a new misfortune: Hanks and Wilson contracted the coronavirus. The husband and wife are already over 60, so the illness was difficult, but fortunately everything turned out well.

We will hardly exaggerate when we say that these two love each other today as much as they did at the beginning of their life’s journey. Just look at the way they look at each other! We all want this kind of love.

So much has been done and so much more to come! We wish the couple to live in love and harmony until the golden … no, until the diamond wedding!

Ksenia Chashnikova worked on the text