MARRIAGE MILESTONE
Tom and Rita celebrate 30 years
Thirty years on, their union remains rock solid – something almost unheard of in fickle Hollywood! And yet Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson say their marriage still feels like it’s in its infancy.
“Most of our friends have been married longer than we have,” laughs Tom. “We’re the young pups.”
On April 30, the pair marked their pearl anniversary, throwing a star-studded party at their home in Los Angeles, where the guest list included everyone from Barack Obama to Martin Short and Oprah Winfrey.
And now the couple have continued the celebrations, embarking on a romantic, long summer holiday in Italy.
The duo were all smiles in Capri two weeks ago, sunning themselves aboard David Geffen’s super yacht. And this week, they appeared equally loved up, strolling hand in hand through the streets of Portofino.
It’s clear the couple are still besotted with one another, three decades on.
Just last year Tom (62) admitted he still has the hots for Rita. In a podcast, he said of his wife, “I gotta say, sometimes I look at that lady in the morning looking all tousled and warm from bed in her sweats and her hair all piled upon her head… smokin’ hot!”
Tom says he thought Rita (61) was adorable when he first laid eyes on her in 1981 on the set of Bosom Buddies, but he was a young husband and father
(to now actor Colin Hanks) at the time, and so life went on. The next year he welcomed a daughter with his college sweetheart Samantha Lewes. But the relationship didn’t last.
Years later, Tom and Rita were brought back together on the set of the 1985 comedy Volunteers. And this time they realised there was something special between them.
“When we first looked at each other there was definitely a kind of like, ‘Hey, this is the place!’ I felt that, anyway,” Tom says. “I
think the end result is that we got married for all the right reasons.” The multiple Oscarwinner credits his relationship with Rita as being the reason for his film career success.
“I was able to construct a number of things in Philadelphia because of my relationship with Rita,” confides Tom. “The way my character felt about his lover is the way I feel for mine. The same was true when I played Forrest Gump, who loved Jenny. Without my connection with Rita, I don’t know how I would’ve been able to connect with what Forrest was going through.”
Tom and Rita clearly really are living la dolce vita – we wish them all the best for another magical 30 years!