Chet Hanks did not have the ideal upbringing. Despite being the son of Tom Hanks, who is widely regarded as “America’s Dad” and one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, Chet, 31, claimed that he lacked a “strong male role model” growing up.
Chet, the son of two celebrity parents (Tom Hanks has been married to Rita Wilson for thirty-three years), battled during his adolescence to emerge from the shadows of his tremendously successful parents, both of whom are sixty-five years old.
Chet is not Hanks and Wilson’s only son. They also have 25-year-old Truman in the family. Nevertheless, Chet, who was recently making headlines for his imitation of a Jamaican accent, believed that his upbringing was extremely flawed. Hanks also has two other children from a previous relationship – 43-year-old Colin and 38-year-old Elizabeth Ann.
Chet tells his YouTube followers what it was like to grow up with celebrity parents. He asserted, “I love my parents” and “wouldn’t want any different parents,” but conceded that growing up with Hanks and Wilson was “a double-edged sword.”
Chet admitted that many people have “contempt” for him since he is Tom Hanks’ son. He also found it difficult to maneuver through all of the people who he said were always “s***-talking” as well as the “d***-riders,” who tried to benefit from their affiliation with the celebrities’ sons. Nonetheless, Chet admitted that his youth lacked “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 added, “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 his father was “on this pedestal” all his life, and people had “assumed” that Chet was “a really arrogant, entitled spoiled brat even though I really wasn’t.”
As 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.”
Although Chet was critical of Tom Hanks’s parenting style – or lack of parenting – fans defended the famous actor on social media.
“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.”
Another Twitter user commented, “Tom Hanks has another son from his first marriage. He’s fine and well-balanced. I’m not sure what this one’s problem is, given that the parents are still together and not divorced. “Just a spoiled, entitled brat.”
What are your thoughts on Chet Hanks’ criticism of his father?