Who Was Tom Hanks' First Wife? All About Samantha Lewes, Who Welcomed 2 Children with the Actor

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Tom Hanks, who is now married to Rita Wilson, wed Samantha Lewes in 1978
The Forrest Gump actor and Lewes welcomed two kids before they finalized their divorce in 1987
Their daughter, E.A., claimed in her 2025 memoir that Lewes was abusiveBefore Tom Hanks' love story with Rita Wilson began, he was married to his first wife, Samantha Lewes.
The former couple wed in 1978 and welcomed two children together, daughter E.A. and son Colin, before finalizing their divorce in 1987.
Lewes eventually died in 2002, and years later, E.A. claimed in her 2025 memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, that her late mother (whose real name was Susan Dillingham) was emotionally and physically abusive.
In May 2025, the Forrest Gump star addressed the allegations made by his daughter during an interview with Access Hollywood.
'I'm not surprised that my daughter had the wherewithal as well as the curiosity to examine this thing that I think she was incredibly honest about,' Hanks said. 'We all come from checkered, cracked lives, all of us.'
So who was Tom Hanks' first wife? Here's everything to know about Samantha Lewes and her relationship with the actor.
Like Hanks, Lewes was also an actress. She appeared in a 1981 episode of Hanks' ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies, as well as 1984's Mr. Success.
Off-screen, she enjoyed Shakespeare and poetry, according to E.A.'s memoir.
The former couple met and fell in love while they were both students at California State University, Sacramento in the mid '70s.
During a 1994 conversation with Interview Magazine, Hanks opened up about his path to the school, saying it was the "only institute of higher education that I could get into where you could do plays."
"I stage-managed shows, was a carpenter for shows and acted in them," he said. "Also I started hanging out in a place attached to the theater called the Green Room in Sacramento, where everybody had an entrance, everybody was a star. It was a great mix of people."
After sparking a romance in college, Hanks and Lewes wed in January 1978. However, they went their separate ways in 1985, finalizing their divorce two years later in 1987.
Hanks began dating Wilson in 1986. The pair then got married in April 1988, going on to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary in April 2025.
Hanks, who is a father of four, welcomed two children with Lewes: son Colin and daughter E.A., whose real name is Elizabeth Anne.
Colin was born on Nov. 24, 1977, and has gone on to follow in his parents' footsteps as an actor. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, born on May 17, 1982, appeared as an extra in Forrest Gump and That Thing You Do! alongside her dad before going on to become a writer under the name E.A.
After Hanks and Lewes divorced, Lewes got primary custody of E.A. and Colin. While at first Hanks had designated weekend and summer visits with his children, Lewes suddenly moved them from Los Angeles to Sacramento, Calif., without notice.
'My dad came to pick us up from school and we're not there,' E.A. wrote in her memoir. 'And it turns out we haven't been there for two weeks and he has to track us down."
Hanks later welcomed Chester "Chet" Marlon and Truman Theodore with Wilson.
In 2002, Lewes died from lung cancer at age 49.
Before her death, she was allegedly a troubled woman who struggled with mental illness and addiction. In her memoir, E.A. claims this might have stemmed from Lewes potentially witnessing her own father "rape, murder and cannibalize" a young girl, after E.A. read about the alleged incident in one of her late mother's journals.
'If any part of the red journal is true, where I read about my grandfather raping and murdering, then my mother never stood a chance," E.A. wrote, later sharing that she never was able to "prove conclusively what he did or didn't do."
After Lewes relocated with her children to Sacramento, E.A. says her mental health began to decline. Although she was never formally diagnosed, E.A. believes Lewes may have experienced bipolar disorder, marked by episodes of extreme paranoia and delusions, which became more frequent as time went on.
'The screaming was scarier,' she recalled. 'The food was more inconsistent. The degree to which she would pray and speak to God out loud — she used to be able to keep it together in public. That went very quickly.'
In her memoir, E.A. shared that her childhood was marked with "confusion, violence, deprivation, and love," revealing that her mother's emotional abuse turned physical.
When she was 14, E.A. was struck in the face by Lewes, leading Hanks to eventually gain primary custody of her. Moving forward, E.A. spent time with Lewes during summer visits.
Ahead of the memoir's release, E.A. told PEOPLE that she leaned on her brother Colin for support during some of the difficult times with her mother.
'There's this galvanizing incident between my mother and I that was like a line had been crossed in a way that not even I could cover for her anymore,' E.A. recalled. 'And in the glaring reality of who she was and how bad the situation was getting, the only person I could turn to was the only other veteran of that war, which was Colin."
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Read the original article on People