It turns out that those photos of perfect celebrity families in social media could be far from the truth. 31-year-old Chet Hanks, son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson paints a very different picture.
In a YouTube video from earlier this year, Chet Hanks opens up about his childhood. “I didn’t have a strong male role model to tell me … ‘Bro, f–k these people. They are just jealous of you,’” Chet said in the video.
“‘You have all these things that they want, so they are trying to f–king throw their shade at you so you can feel s–tty about yourself because they are jealous.’ I needed to hear that,” he said. “I didn’t have anyone to tell me that. This is me now telling the younger version of myself exactly what I needed to hear back then.”
Chet Hanks stated that people thought he was acting entitled and spoilt
Chet said that people around him always assumed he was acting entitled, arrogant and spoilt. “It was extremely hard to break down their walls,” he said. “I regularly encountered a lot of disdain, a lot of animosity and negativity because everybody was just prepared to always hate my guts from their first encounter with me.”
It was increasingly hard to deal with as there was constant plotting going on behind his back, stating that “people kinda did f–k with me a lot growing up. And it was never to my face,” Chet said. “It was always behind my back in the forms of gossip and s–t-talking.”
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Tom Hank’s son, Chet admitted that he had many opportunities other children of his age could never dream of, perhaps making them jealous. “There are a lot of advantages, but sometimes it can be pretty weird. I got to do a lot of cool s–t that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to do,” he said. “Travel the world, stay in nice hotels, fly on private planes, and I’m very blessed for that. I wouldn’t change my situation.”
Without the rose colored glasses
Chet’s YouTube channel shows a more intimate side of the child born of fame, addressing his past struggles with substance abuse, leading to anger. “I no longer have gone down that self-destructive road of dealing with my anger and my resentment by self-destructing, by pleasure-seeking through partying, drugs, alcohol, substances, everything.”
With a history of relationship issues, Chet Hanks has been battling the legal system when in ’21 ex-girlfriend Kiana Parker sued him for $1 million accusing Hanks of both physical and mental abuse. Parker had previously filed for a protection order against Hanks, claiming that ‘their relationship deteriorated, he repeatedly manhandled her, threw things at her and threatened her with a gun in multiple encounters.’
He was additionally accused of racism, but fired back when Parker was accused of theft, assault and battery by Hanks, claiming that she had “struck him with a pot and slashed him with a knife.”
“You’ve got to keep in mind that fame is the most powerful drug known to man,” Hanks said. “Having a massive ego is undeniably the most destructive behavior. People are infatuated with fame: They put famous people on a pedestal.”
He added that fame “creates a lot of jealousy” and and that people, including himself, often seek fame for validation, but “true validation can only come from within yourself.”
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