E.A. Hanks Can Barely Remember a Time When Stepmom Rita Wilson Wasn't in Her Life

In her book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, E.A. Hanks used one of her mother's journals to learn more about the woman she barely knew.

E.A. and Colin Hanks are Tom Hanks's children from his first marriage to actor Susan Dillingham. The couple was married in 1978 and divorced seven years later.

After the split, E.A. and Colin lived with Susan, whose struggles with mental health created an abusive environment for them. Susan died from lung cancer in 2002 at the age of 49.

Although Tom met Rita Wilson in 1981, the two didn't start dating until 1986 and were married two years later. Colin would have been 11 while E.A. was just 6 years old.

For a while, she had both a mother and a stepmother, but E.A. says she never thought of Rita that way. The two are close and have a great relationship. Read on for more details.

Although Susan remained in E.A.'s life until she was 20, she also spent a great deal of time with Rita, who entered her life at an important age.

"Rita's not really a stepmother, she's my other mother," E.A. explained to People. Their family grew after Rita gave birth to Chet Hanks in 1990 and Truman Hanks five years later.

Once again, E.A. was able to view her new siblings as full brothers instead of half.

When E.A. moved to Los Angeles at the age of 13, Chet was 5 years old, and Truman had just been born. It was easy for her to think of them the same way she thought of Colin. Because they were so young, they don't remember a time without E.A. in their lives, just as she doesn't recall a life before Rita.

"I think we're all kind of in that era of trying to get our own thing going and individuate and all of that, but we're a posse," said E.A.

In her book, E.A. writes that initially, she was only able to spend time with her dad and Rita on the weekends as well as during the summer.

"From 5 to 14, years filled with confusion, violence, deprivation, and love, I was a Sacramento girl," she said. E.A. could barely remember a time when her biological parents were "in the same place at the same time."

She described a lovely house in Sacramento that had white columns, a pool, and pictures of horses in her bedroom.

As Susan's mental health declined, so did E.A.'s environment as well as her sense of safety.

"The backyard became so full of dog s--t that you couldn’t walk around it, the house stank of smoke," wrote E.A. "The fridge was bare or full of expired food more often than not, and my mother spent more and more time in her big four-poster bed, poring over the Bible."

E.A.'s abrupt move to Los Angeles happened after her mother became violent. After that, Tom gained primary custody of his oldest children.