Tom Hanks’ Daughter Opens Up About Painful Childhood in New Memoir

Tom Hanks’ daughter, E.A. Hanks, is offering a rare and emotional glimpse into her childhood, alleging abuse by her late mother, Samantha Lewes (born Susan Dillingham), following her parents’ 1980s divorce.

In her memoir The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, E.A. recalls being abruptly moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento with her brother, actor Colin Hanks, without their father’s knowledge. “My dad came to pick us up from school and we’re not there… He had to track us down,” she writes.

She describes her Sacramento years, from ages 5 to 14, as a confusing mix of “violence, deprivation, and love.” What began as a seemingly idyllic home with a pool and horse posters eventually deteriorated. “The fridge was bare or full of expired food… The backyard became so full of dog s–t you couldn’t walk around,” she recounts, adding that her mother’s emotional abuse eventually turned physical.

E.A. later moved back to Los Angeles in middle school and reconnected with her father, stepmother Rita Wilson, and half-brothers Chet and Truman. She shares that during her senior year of high school, her mother called to say she was dying. Lewes passed away in 2002 from bone cancer at age 49.

Tom Hanks has rarely discussed the divorce, though in a 2020 interview he admitted it was a “horribly painful time” and expressed regret about the impact it had on his children.

E! News reached out to Hanks’ representatives for comment on the memoir but has not yet received a response.