We like to think that movie stars have it all: money, fame, and happiness. But the truth is a little more complicated. Take Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson: these stars have been married for almost 30 years, and from the outside looking in their lives seem perfect.
They're both movie stars and they have 2 children together (Hanks has another 2 from an earlier marriage), but dig a little under the surface and you'll discover they have problems just like anyone else.
For starters, Rita revealed that she battled breast cancer, and had to undergo a double mastectomy. At the same time, Hanks was struggling with the complications of his own condition: type 2 diabetes.
While they supported each other through these medical crises, their son Chet was grappling with drug addiction. The actor and rapper entered rehab for his cocaine abuse in 2014, but didn't stay clean long, and even briefly went missing.
Throughout these trials, Hanks and Wilson depended on their love for each other, but also their faith in God. As Wilson revealed, prayer has played a huge part in their lift.
Click the next page to hear what Hanks has to say about faith!
While Hanks isn't as outspoken as other Christian celebrities, he's a lifelong believer (he converted to the Greek Orthodox church to marry Wilson) since his teenage years. That's when the actor experienced what he calls a "serious born again experience," that turned him into a "Bible-toting Evangelical."
Through the years, Hanks hasn't shied away from discussing his faith, including at a press conference for his film Angels and Demons.
In the film, Hanks played a Harvard professor solving a mystery at the Vatican, and he took the opportunity to discuss his belief in God.
"I must say that when I go to church - and I do go to church - I ponder the mystery," he said. "I meditate on the, 'why?' of 'Why people are as they are,' and 'Why bad things happen to good people,' and 'Why good things happen to bad people.' The mystery is what I think is, almost, the grand unifying theory of all mankind."
He also praised the Catholic church for their good deeds around the world.
"The church does feed the poor. It does take care of the hungry. It heals the sick. I think that the grace of God seems to be not only in the eye of the believer, but also in the hands of the believer."
Wilson even credits God with bringing her and Hanks together, revealing in a red carpet interview that she prayed "every single day" for God to bring her somebody that loved her the same way she loved them, and that Hanks was the answer to her prayers.
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