Chet Hanks did not have the upbringing he desired. Despite being the son of Tom Hanks, who is widely regarded as “America’s Dad” and one of Hollywood’s nicest people, Chet, 31, stated that he lacked a “strong male role model” during his youth. As the child of two celebrity parents – Tom Hanks has been married to his wife Rita Wilson for 33 years – Chet suffered during his teenage years as he attempted to break free from under the burden of his highly successful parents, both of whom are age 65.
Chet is not the only Hanks and Wilson son. Truman, age 25, is also in their family. Chet, who was recently making headlines for his imitation of a Jamaican accent, felt that his upbringing had been extremely inadequate. Hanks has two additional children from a prior relationship: 43-year-old Colin and 38-year-old Elizabeth Ann (whose mother was Lizzy Grant).
Chet, in a YouTube video, discusses what it’s like being the child of celebrities. He stated, “I love my parents,” and “wouldn’t want any different parents,” but he acknowledged that being raised by Hanks and Wilson was “a double-edged sword.”
Chet stated many people have a lot of “contempt” for me because I am Tom Hanks’s son. It was also difficult for me to wend my way through all the individuals who he said were constantly “s***-talking” as well as the “d***-riders,” who tried to profit from having a relationship with the celebrity’s kid. Nonetheless, Chet did acknowledge that he had not had “a strong male role model. Chet wished that someone during his childhood could have told him, “‘Hey, bro, f*** these people. They are just jealous of you.”
He continued, “my experience was even more complicated because on top of fame already being toxic, I wasn’t even famous. You know, I was just the son of somebody famous, so I hadn’t even done anything to deserve any sort of recognition, and that created a lot of contempt, a lot of contempt for me.”
Chet said that his father had been “on this pedestal” all of his life, and that people had “assumed” he was “a really arrogant, entitled spoiled brat even though I really wasn’t.”
When he was a teenager, “people would make up their minds about me before they even got a chance to know me, and it was extremely hard to break down their walls, so I encountered a lot of disdain, a lot of animosity, a lot of negativity because everybody was just prepared to hate my guts.”
Chet also criticized Tom Hanks’s parenting technique – or lack thereof – on his blog, but fans came to the actor’s defense.
“There’s literally nothing you can say, Chet, that will ever make me believe Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, by way of Oakland California didn’t do the absolute best job he could with you given the outcome.”
A Twitter user said, “Tom Hanks has another son from his first marriage. He’s fine and well-adjusted. Wonder what this one’s problem is, considering parents are still together and not divorced. Just a spoiled and entitled brat.”
