Rita Wilson Shares Sweet Insight Into How She and Tom Hanks Celebrate the Holidays
Rita Wilson only learned about her dad’s secret history after he died.
When the Sleepless in Seattle actress participated in the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in 2012, Rita expected to learn about her family history going back generations. Instead, her father Hassan Halilov Ibrahimoff’s story was “so shocking and unusual,” they spent the entire time learning about him.
Because, Rita would learn, Hassan had had a wife and child in Bulgaria, both of whom died before he immigrated to the United States and married her mom Dorothea Tzigkou. And as Rita revealed, she never knew about his past until after he died in 2009.
“We went to Bulgaria,” she recalled during the April 22 episode of How to Fall With Elizabeth Day podcast. “We go to the place and we look at this book of records and it says, ‘This is where your dad was living and names.’ And they said, ‘Well, your dad was married.’ I said, What?’”
And upon asking whether she’d be able to meet her father’s son, named Emile, she learned that both he and her father’s wife, Alice, had died. Alice had died from birth complications three days after she gave birth to Emile on Dec. 26 and the infant died of an infection months later.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
“But this is where it gets weird,” Rita—who shares sons Chet Hanks, 36, and Truman Hanks, 30, with husband Tom Hanks—continued. “My sister's firstborn child was born on December 26th, and my youngest son was born on December 26th. And I think of my dad all of those years celebrating all those birthdays and knowing that he had a child born on December 26th, Emile, who passed away. I still can’t get over that.”
“He never said anything to us,” the 69-year-old continued. “I wish I could have talked to him about that.”
Instead, Rita said her family was extremely private. In fact, she cited a Greek cultural norm among the older generations of her family. (Her dad was born in Greece before moving to Bulgaria.)
“There's no word for privacy in the Greek language,” she said. “There's no word for personal privacy. I think in my own generation, as we talk about public versus private, I think this privacy thing was something I grew up with. I was like, ‘Don't ever talk about anything anytime, anywhere because you don't know what's going to happen. It's going to backfire on you.’”
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Now, looking back, having this knowledge about her father’s history only adds to the gratitude and appreciation Rita feels for him—and how she didn’t value all he did for their family when she was young.
“I was 23 years old, but still old enough to know better and to really value what he had accomplished and what he had sacrificed in order to have a life of freedom in America and to escape from communism,” she said. “And he was such an incredible person.”
“He got a job as a barback in New York and worked his way up to being a bartender,” she continued. “And he supported a family. He bought a house. He never had debt in his life. He and my mom were married for 59 years. And they were an incredible couple and incredible, incredible parents.”
For more insight into Rita’s blended family with Tom, read on.
John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images
Tom Hanks
While the world knows Tom Hanks as an Oscar-winning actor, to his four kids Colin Hanks, E.A. Hanks, Chet Hanks and Truman Hanks, he's dad.
"Somewhere along the line, I figured out, 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?" the Forrest Gump star told The New York Times in 2019. "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."
And for Tom, who married Rita Wilson in 1988, part of keeping his children safe is protecting their privacy.
"We were always able to separate the personal responsibilities from the private ones," he said on a 2020 episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger. "There are times you have to be in public and there are times when you shouldn’t be in public. When the kids were growing up, we protected that very, very specifically."
Bei/Shutterstock
Susan Dillingham (a.k.a. Samantha Lewes)
Before Tom was married to Rita, he met wife Susan Dillingham (who acted in small roles as Samantha Lewes) when they were studying at Sacramento State.
The two were already parents to son Colin, born in 1977, when they wed in 1980 and went on to welcome daughter E.A. (her initials stand for Elizabeth Ann) in 1982.
But three years later, Tom and Susan split.
It was a "horribly painful time, fraught with emotion and bad feelings and the failures that you go, 'Oh, I couldn’t be a worse father, and I couldn’t be a worse human being,'" the Big alum recalled on a 2020 episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger. "I remember all those feelings as though I had cursed innocent beings with my own failings." "Sometimes it’s a priest at the church that you trust. Sometimes, it’s a really good friend," he continued. "I’ve had versions of all those things that have been the type of people that have said, 'You know, you’re not a horrible person, and this will pass. You just gotta have a little bit of faith and goodness that is inside yourself.'" Susan died in 2002 after a battle with cancer.
Tom said he attended therapy and leaned on those he could confide in during that time.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Rita Wilson
Tom and Rita first met in 1981 when she made an appearance on his show Bosom Buddies, and they later costarred in the 1985 film Volunteers.
"Rita and I just looked at each other and—kaboing—that was that," Tom once told GQ, per People, about their connection on Volunteers. "I asked Rita if it was the real thing for her, and it just couldn't be denied."The actor and the singer wed in 1988. And they're not only partners in life but also in work, with them appearing together in films like That Thing You Do! and Sleepless in Seattle and producing movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and A Man Called Otto.
Through life's highs and lows—including her 2015 breast cancer battle—Tom and Rita have been by each other's sides. And the actress, who celebrated 10 years of being cancer-free in March 2025, says they continue to put in the work to make their love burn bright.
"I think that any long-term relationship, if you are lucky enough to fall in love and have that spark ignite, it's kind of a responsibility for both people in the relationship to keep that spark going and to keep that flame going," she said in a 2019 interview with Access Hollywood. "Because over the years, over time, you're gonna have ups and downs. It's not going to be all fabulous every second of the day. So, to me, it's that awareness of if you've got that, it always happens."
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks is Tom's oldest son from his previous marriage to Susan. And just like his dad, he fell in love with acting at an early age.
"To be honest, it really just came down to it was the most fun," Colin said on a 2022 episode of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. "Acting was the thing I was drawn to the most. And when there was the least amount of pressure on me to enjoy it, that's when I enjoyed it the most."
Although, he admits there was a time when he turned away from acting because, given his famous father, people kept telling him, "Of course, that's what you're going to do." However, Colin says it was his dad's words of wisdom that got him back on that path.
"This is the one thing I will credit the old man with is he said, 'Look, you have to want to do this. If you don't really want this, then come up with something else. Because you will be miserable if this is not something that you truly are passionate about,'" he continued. "It was the best advice I could have gotten at the best time."
Colin went on to star in many movies and TV shows, including Life in Pieces, Roswell, Orange County, King Kong, The House Bunny, and Untraceable. He's also done voiceover work for animated projects like Talking Tom and Friends
Colin is married to Samantha Bryant and is dad to daughters Olivia and Charlotte.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
E.A. Hanks
E.A. Hanks is Tom's only daughter from his previous marriage to Susan.
And while her siblings caught the filmmaking bug, she pursued a different career path.
Previously a writer for Vanity Fair, E.A. has contributed to outlets like TIME, The Guardian and The New York Times. She's also an author, with her book The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road dropping April 8, 2025. According to a description from publisher Simon & Schuster, the book details E.A.'s journey as she "follows the same route as a long-ago road trip with her mother in an attempt to better understand the complicated woman who gave her life."
In a book excerpt shared by People, E.A. looks back at the time following her parents' split in which Susan had custody of her and Colin while Tom saw the kids on the weekends. But one day, she continued, her mom moved them from L.A. to Sacramento without giving their dad a heads-up.
"My dad came to pick us up from school and we’re not there," E.A wrote. "And it turns out we haven't been there for two weeks and he has to track us down."
In the book, E.A. also shared her experience of living with her mom, writing the backyard was "full of dog s--t," "the house stank of smoke," and the "fridge was bare or full of expired food."
"One night, her emotional violence became physical violence," E.A. wrote, "and in the aftermath I moved to Los Angeles, right smack in the middle of the seventh grade."
Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Chet Hanks
Chet Hanks, born in August 1990, is Tom and Rita's oldest son and has inherited their passion of acting.
Over the years, he's appeared in TV shows like Running Point, Your Honor, Empire and Shameless as well as in movies like Dead Wrong, Fantastic Four and his father's films Larry Crowne and Greyhound.
“My dad’s an actor. My older brother’s an actor. My mom. This was the family business,” he told Bustle in March 2025, “so I [knew] that was something I would go into at some point.”
Chet shares his mother's love of music, too. In addition to releasing a few rap tracks, he's part of the country music duo Something Out West. And in March 2025, they dropped a Forrest Gump-themed music video for their song "You Better Run" featuring Tom.
A cast member on the 2024 reality show The Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets, Chet has also made headlines for some controversial moments, including his decision to put on a Jamaican Patois accent at the 2020 Golden Globes and coin the phrase "white boy summer" the following year.
More recently, Chet has remained focused on his work, family (he shares daughter Michaiah with ex Tiffany Miles) and sobriety. And he's thankful his parents have been there for him throughout his journey.
"They’ve always have been super supportive of me," Chet said on a March 2025 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, noting he's three years sober, "and I don’t take it for granted."
Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images
Truman Hanks
Born in December 1995, Truman Hanks is the youngest of the Hanks kids.
And like his older brothers, he's following in dad Tom and mom Rita's famous footsteps by entering the movie-making business. Although, his father notes Truman prefers being behind the camera.
"He’s been working with cameras and lenses and has been developing his own films since he was in high school," the Cast Away star said on a 2023 episode of SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show, later adding, "All my kids are Renaissance creatures. But he actually is a member of the Local 600, which is the camera union here in New York. So he works on films already in the camera department, and he’s actually shot his own stuff. He’s actually been a cinematographer already, director of photography."
Truman has dabbled in acting as well, playing the younger version of his dad's titular character in the 2022 film A Man Called Otto.
"His curse or blessing, you decide," noted Tom, "is that he and I resemble each other almost completely at the age of 26."
In addition to working in film, Truman is a mathematics major, who received his degree from Stanford University.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。