Tom Hanks was just 21 years old when he became a father.
The actor shares two children, Colin and Elizabeth, to his first wife Samantha Lewes, and two children other children, Chet and Truman, with his wife of 31 years, Rita Wilson.
In a November 2019 interview with the New York Times, Hanks said his children with his first wife grew up with a different version of ‘dad’ than his two younger children.
“My son Colin was born when I was very young. As well as my daughter, but that means we have this gestalt understanding because they remember when their dad was just a guy trying to, you know, make the rent. My other kids, they were born after I had established a beachhead in every way. And so their lives were just different.”
Parenting is not easy, he said. But his love for his children knows no bounds: “The only thing really, I think, eventually a parent can do is say I love you, there’s nothing you can do wrong, you cannot hurt my feelings, I hope you will forgive me on occasion, and what do you need me to do? You offer up that to them. I will do anything I can possibly do in order to keep you safe.”
Hanks teared up when he brought up kids after accepting his Cecil B. DeMille Award at last year's Golden Globes. At the time, he spoke about “five kids who are braver and stronger and wiser than their old man is.”
Tom Hanks accepts the Cecil B. Demille Award at the 2020 Golden Globes. Post continues below video.
The fifth child he referred to was reportedly Samantha Bryant, his daughter-in-law who has been married to his eldest son Colin since 2010. Hanks sees her ‘like a daughter’.
“I’m sorry,” he said after getting teary, taking a moment to gather his emotions.
“A man is blessed with a family sitting down front like that. A wife who is fantastic in every way, who has taught me what love is. Five kids who are braver and stronger and wiser than their old man is.”
