Elizabeth Hanks reveals dark family past in new memoir
Tom Hanks' daughter has accused her late mother of psychological and physical abuse. Elizabeth Hanks discusses this in a book, with a controversial excerpt recently surfacing online.
Elizabeth is the daughter of Tom Hanks and actress Susan Dillingham, known professionally as Samantha Lewes. Her parents married in 1978, but their marriage lasted only nine years. After the divorce, she and her brother Colin were placed in their mother's care and did not have frequent contact with their father.
She dedicates considerable attention to this phase of her life in her book titled "The 10: A Memory of Family and the Open Road." An excerpt, in which she discusses her difficult relationship with her mother, was shared by People magazine. It appears that her mother resorted to disreputable practices towards her children.
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 wrote.
Tom Hanks' daughter did not hide the fact that she and her brother were treated poorly by their mother. Recalling her childhood in Sacramento, she still envisions a yard full of dog mess, where they couldn't walk because it always ended in a fight.
She also remembers a fridge filled with out-of-date food and a mother who spent entire days in bed reading the Bible. Susan Dillingham moved the children to Sacramento without Tom Hanks' knowledge.
Tom Hanks' daughter suspects her mother had mental health issues
In 2019, Elizabeth Hanks embarked on a journey by camper van as part of her work on the book to places associated with her traumatic experiences. The author tried her best to understand her mother. Ultimately, she did not depict her solely in a negative light.
She suspects that her mother had an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, with symptoms including delusions and paranoia. The first wife of the "Green Mile" star died in 2002 at just 49 years old.
The cause of death was bone cancer. The actress, known from the series "Bosom Buddies" and the film "Mr. Success," called her daughter shortly before her death to inform her that she would soon die. Elizabeth Hanks was 19 years old at that time.
