Tom Hanks’ Son ‘Grateful’ for Parents Through Sobriety Journey
By Movieguide® Contributor
Chet Hanks has two special people he credits for helping him get sober — his dad, Tom Hanks, and mom, Rita Wilson.
The actor and artist told Drew Barrymore on her show Tuesday that he’s been “100% sober” for over three years.
“What I’ve learned along the way is that family, whether it’s blood or found, do make you feel shy and embarrassed when you’re not doing the right things and the most proud when you are,” Barrymore said.
The 34-year-old said his parents were there for him “through thick and thin.”
“I don’t take it for granted. I’m really, really grateful for both my parents. I’m at the age where I’m just really grateful for them,” Hanks said. “I really cherish the time that I have spent with them.”
The “Leaving Hollywood” singer previously revealed he hit “rock bottom” after going on a “three-day coke binge.” After that, he went to rehab and became sober.
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“I just knew, man, if I don’t change my life in a drastic way, either I’m not even going to be around or something bad, so bad, is going to happen that my life might as well be over,” he said.
“I would go do coke with the cokeheads, and they would be telling me, like, ‘Yo, chill, bro…Wait a second. Give it like 15 minutes,” Hanks admitted on a podcast last year.
Now, he fully realizes the damage that the drugs did.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “It eats away [at you]. You just, like, wither away ’cause you can’t eat, you can’t sleep.”
Hanks says his career wouldn’t be possible if he weren’t sober.
“It’s not difficult at all,” he said. “What’s difficult is when you’re trying to manage your life and you’re not sober, that’s what’s difficult. When you just commit and decide and you stick to it, it’s not even something that you negotiate with. It’s just a non-negotiable. And life becomes extremely easy.”
In 2016, Tom Hanks said he thinks he might’ve strayed toward drugs and alcohol had he not become a father at a young age.
“I’m lucky,” he told Radio Times. “I was in charge of offspring at a very early age, so I didn’t have the luxury of being able to get stoned a lot. And I never drank too much.”
“I was never what I call a s******** artist,” he continued. “I thought it was more fun just to be seeing what was going on. I did my share, but it didn’t become a habit.”
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