E.A. Hanks Reveals Troubled Childhood in New Memoir

LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2025 — E.A. Hanks, daughter of actor Tom Hanks and his late first wife Susan Dillingham, is set to release her memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, on April 8, detailing the complexities of her childhood filled with trauma and love.

The memoir chronicles a six-month road trip Hanks undertook in 2019 along Interstate 10, retracing the path from Los Angeles to Palatka, Florida, a significant location tied to her mother’s past. Hanks, now 42, seeks to unravel the legacy of Dillingham, who died from lung cancer in 2002 at the age of 49.

“I have few memories of the early years in Los Angeles,” Hanks writes, reflecting on her tumultuous upbringing. “Eventually a divorce agreement was settled, and I would visit my dad and stepmother on weekends, but from ages 5 to 14, years filled with confusion, violence, deprivation, and love, I was a Sacramento girl.”

Hanks recalls how her parents met in the mid-1970s at Sacramento State University while studying theater, launching a marriage that would ultimately end in divorce in 1985 after five years. Susan Dillingham, who performed under the name Samantha Lewes, obtained primary custody of E.A. and her brother, Colin.

Without warning, Dillingham relocated with her children from Los Angeles to Sacramento. “My dad came to pick us up from school and we’re not there,” Hanks recalled. “And it turns out we haven’t been there for two weeks and he has to track us down.”

In her memoir, Hanks expresses a belief that her mother may have suffered from untreated bipolar disorder, leading to erratic behavior. “As the years went on, the backyard became so full of dog feces that you couldn’t walk around it, the house stank of smoke,” she wrote, describing a deteriorating home life.

The narrative reflects profound challenges, including emotional and physical violence. “One night, her emotional violence became physical violence, and in the aftermath, I moved to Los Angeles, right smack in the middle of the seventh grade,” Hanks said.

As her mother’s condition worsened, Hanks shifted from visiting to living with her father and stepmother in Los Angeles. Despite the challenges Hanks faced, she often recalls good memories, “I lived in a white house with columns and a backyard with a pool,” Hanks wrote.

The memoir promises to be more than a recounting of hardship; it is described as an exploration of identity and reconciliation. “Reckoning with the past, the present, her memories, and herself, Hanks brings us along a beautiful voyage towards understanding how the stories we tell about the places we’re from ultimately become the stories we tell about the people we are,” reads a promotional excerpt.

The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road will be available in bookstores on Tuesday, April 8. Hanks hopes her story brings awareness and understanding to the struggles many face growing up in turbulent environments.