Tom Hanks’ daughter, E.A., details shocking lasting effects of abusive childhood

E.A. Hanks, the daughter of Tom Hanks and his first wife, Samantha Lewes, is still struggling with the aftereffects of her “abusive” childhood.

The 42-year-old writes in her forthcoming memoir, “The 10,” that “personal hygiene” is difficult for her to grasp “because only sporadically did I ever have an adult telling me to brush my teeth, for example, let alone how or why I should.”

E.A. admits she was well into her 30s when she realized she had not seen a dentist in more than a decade.

Elizabeth (EA) Hanks

The former Vanity Fair scribe also struggles to “keep food in my house on a consistent basis,” as it was either feast or famine at her mom’s home.

Additionally, E.A. shares that she developed excoriation disorder, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as a mental health condition that causes a person to compulsively pick at their skin.

“I still pick badly,” she writes, “though I work hard not to.”

Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Truman Theodore Hanks, and Elizabeth Hanks.
E.A. (seen here with stepmother Rita Wilson and half-brother Truman) still struggles with personal hygiene.Getty Images
Tom Hanks' daughter, E.A.
She also struggles to keep food in her house “on a consistent basis.”Instagram/@eahanks

The writer, born Elizabeth Ann Hanks, details her unstable upbringing with her late mother throughout “The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road,” which hits bookstores April 8.

Lewes, whose real name was Susan Dillingham, died from cancer in 2002 at age 49.

E.A. writes that her mom did not hit her but was abusive in other ways.

“She pushed me, shook me, pulled at my hair and locked me in a closet once or twice … she told me there were men hiding in her closet who were waiting for us to go to sleep to come out and do horrible things,” she remembers.

E.A. Hanks.
E.A. says her mother was “abusive.”Instagram/@eahanks
Jacob Bernstein, Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Hanks.
The writer (seen here with her dad and writer Jacob Bernstein in 2007) believes her mother was bipolar.Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

The Hollywood scion also claims Lewes would talk of “dozens of miscarried babies, [E.A.’s] lost siblings,” and insinuate she would “join them in eternal limbo.”

However, she also notes that her mother, who struggled with her mental health, drove her “all over California to horse shows at ungodly hours” and would “cut up cookie dough for my friends sleeping over and let me dye my hair every color I wanted.”

When E.A. was 14, her mom’s health took a turn for the worse, leading her to realize “there should have been more food in the house on a regular basis” and that being awoken in the middle of the night to hear “an impromptu lecture on why yoga was the devil’s work” was not the norm.

Colin Hanks.
Tom and Lewes also shared son Colin Hanks (seen here in 2008).Getty Images for CineVegas
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
When E.A. (not pictured) was 14, she went to live with her dad and stepmom (seen here in 2024).Getty Images for The Recording Academy

The teen ultimately moved to live with her father and his second wife, Rita Wilson, and her two half-brothers, Chet and Truman Hanks.

E.A. believes her mother had undiagnosed bipolar disorder with episodes of extreme paranoia and delusion.

Lewes met Tom, now 68, in the mid-’70s while they were both studying theater in Sacramento.

The then-couple welcomed their first child, son Colin Hanks, in 1977 and married two months later. They became parents of two in 1982 when E.A. was born.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.

The “Forrest Gump” star and Lewes separated in 1985 and divorced two years later.

She got primary custody, with the kids visiting their dad on weekends and in the summer — until the situation flipped in their teenage years.

While Lewes never remarried, Tom went on to wed Wilson, now 68, in 1988.