Tom Hanks's First Marriage Ended After Five Years

Because Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have been married for more than 35 years, it's hard to imagine either of them with anyone else. Although Tom was Rita's first husband, she was not Tom's first wife. In fact, Tom's two oldest children were from his first marriage to actor Susan Dillingham. Raise your hand if you did not know that Rita Wilson was not Colin Hanks's mother.

Tom's daughter, E.A. Hanks, opened up about her mother and the tumultuous times she spent with her growing up in an explosive memoir titled The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road. Almost 20 years after Susan died in 2002, E.A. found a single journal that she used to try and understand her mother's struggles with mental illness. Here's what we know about that fraught time.

In her book, E.A. says that her mother and father bonded over their difficult childhoods. "My dad was traumatized by his childhood and his family’s divorce and a revolving door of stepparents and siblings," she wrote. "The love that existed between my parents is two hurt kids trying to dig out of a well together." They met as acting students at Sacramento State University in the mid-1970s, and by 1977, Susan was pregnant with Colin.

The marriage lasted five years and the couple had two children, with E.A. being born in 1982, three years before they separated. When it came to her parents as a couple, E.A. shared that she only recalled two times they were in the same room together: at Colin’s high school graduation and at hers. Initially, Susan had primary custody of her two kids, but things changed when her mental health began to deteriorate. One example was when Susan moved to Sacramento with Colin and E.A. but did not tell Tom.

E.A. came to believe that her mother had bipolar disorder, though she never received any sort of official diagnosis. Her life, according to E.A., was marked by moments of extreme paranoia and delusions. "The screaming was scarier," said E.A. "The food was more inconsistent." As if that wasn't bad enough, Susan would often have conversations with God out loud. For a while, she could "keep it together in public," but that didn't last.

Like many children who live with one abusive parent, there was a reluctance in E.A. to tell her father what was going on. The roles were reversed, which meant E.A. was the parent and protector. If she spoke the truth, it would break what little trust there was in the relationship. That ended right before E.A. turned 14, which was the first time Susan hit her. That's when Tom got primary custody of his two older children.