From left: Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Chet Hanks.Photo: P. Lehman / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Tom HanksandRita Wilsonhave achieved major success in Hollywood — and now they have their sights set on being award-winning grandparents.
Hanks and Wilson, 66, have enjoyed a large blended family for 35 years. Hanks is dad to fellow actorColin Hanks, 45, and daughterElizabeth Hanks, 41, from his nearly 10-year marriage to the late actress Samathan Lewe. Hanks and Wilson, who married in 1988, share two children, sons Chet, 32, and Truman, 27. They have three grandchildren: Colin’s two daughters, Olivia, 12, and Charlotte, 9, and Chet’s daughter, Michaiah, 7.
Chet Hanks and Rita Wilson.David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Now that they’ve got plenty of grandparenting experience under their belts, the couple is sharing the tips and secrets that make them popular with their grandkids. Wilson evidently likes to spend time outdoors getting active with the three young girls.
“You got to get on the trampoline with them, you got to get in the pool with them, you got to get on the tennis court, you got to do all the sports,” she toldET. “You just got to hang out.”
Clockwise from left: Truman Hanks, Elizabeth Hanks, Chet Hanks, Michaiah Hanks, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks.Frazer Harrison/Getty
Frazer Harrison/Getty
In 2019, Hanks shared his thoughts on family life and becoming a father as a young man. “My son Colin was born when I was very young. As well as my daughter,” Hanks toldThe New York Timesahead of the premiere ofA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. “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.”
Hanks also touched on his parenting philosophy, telling theTimes, “Somewhere along the line, I figured out, the only thing … 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.’ That’s it. Offer that up and then just love them.”
All four of his kids — plus Colin’s wife,Samantha Bryant, whom Hanks thinks of “as a daughter” — were present to watch their father accept the prestigiousCecil B. DeMille awardat the 2020Golden Globes, and Hanks got emotional talking about his familyduring his speech.
“A man is blessed with a family sitting down front like that,” he said. “A wife who is fantastic in every way, who has taught me what love is. Five kids who are braver, stronger, and wiser than their old man is, a loving group of people who have put [up] with me being away for months and months and months at a time. … I can’t tell you how much your love means to me.”
source: people.com
