‘Love is Everything!’
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary yesterday, and to mark the occasion, the Sleepless in Seattle actress shared an adorable photo of the couple on her Instagram.
“35 years of marriage. April 30, 1988. Love is everything,” Wilson wrote alongside the photo showing Tom presenting her with a cake while gazing at his lovely wife.
Many fans rushed to comment on the photo, including the pair’s friends and other celebrities.
“Happy anniversary, Rita! Congratulations!” Jennifer Garner commented.
“Happy Anniversary you two!!!!!,” Kenan Thompson commented.
“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! So happy for you both,” said Sean Hayes.
The pair’s first meeting took place some forty years ago in 1981, on the set of ABC’s sitcom, Bosom Buddies.
At that time, the Forrest Gump actor was married to his college sweetheart, Samantha Lewes. He became friends with Wilson, and both stars developed a sweet bond with each other.
In 1984, the duo starred together in Volunteers, and their friendship turned into a relationship. The pair went public with their romance in 1986.
Two years later, Hanks divorced his wife, Samantha, and on April 30, 1988, he tied the knot with Rita.
“I married a Greek babe. She was born right here in California, right here in Hollywood, but her folks are great, she’s marvelous, Rita Wilson — thank you, babe, for marrying me. You made my year already, but thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press,” Hanks said about Wilson during his Golden Globe award-acceptance speech in 1989.
In another post-wedding interview with Oprah, Tom said the success of his relationship with Wilson was a matter of timing, willingness, and maturity.
“When I married Rita, I thought, ‘This is going to require some change on my part.’ I won’t deny that providence was part of us finding each other, but our relationship isn’t magic — the way it’s shown in movies.”
He added, “In real life, our connection is as concrete as me sitting here. Not that marriage doesn’t come close to being hell in a handbasket sometimes. But we both know that no matter what, we’ll be with each other — and we’ll get through it.”
In 1990, they welcomed their first child, a boy named Chet. Five years later, they became parents for the second time and welcomed their son Truman. Hanks is also a father of two other children, Elizabeth and Colin, from his marriage to Samantha, who passed away in 2002.
The pair has done six movies together and have always supported each other throughout their personal and professional lives.
In 2012, during an interview with Piers Morgan, Rita opened up about one of the sweetest moments she shared with her husband gushing,
“I’ll never forget, we were standing on the corner of 57th and 5th in New York, or 58th and 5th. We were holding hands, and we were waiting for the traffic light to change. And he looked at me and he said, ‘You know, I just want you to know, that you never have to change anything about who you are in order to be with me.”
She told Morgan, “Literally, a wave of — if love is a feeling, or a cellular thing that happens to your body — it went through me, and that’s pretty much who he is, and how he’s been.”
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Source: Instagram
