Tom Hanks' son Chet reveals shocking journey to overcome drug addiction as a teen
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Chet Hanks revealed how he overcame with his drug addiction as a teenager and how his parents sent him to a wilderness camp to kick the habit. During an appearance on the ‘Ivan Paychecks’ podcast, the 32-year-old recalled how he was awoken from his bed by two muscular men who were there to take him to a "get straight" program in 2008. He recalled, "Bald heads, like military guys looking like bouncers, you know? And I'm like, 'What the f**k? What the f**k is going on?' They're like, 'You're coming with us. We could do this the easy way or the hard way.'”
Chet said that his parents, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, first became aware of his addiction when he was a senior in high school. He claimed that at the time, their solution was to send him to a remote area of Utah where he would receive a shocking awakening. "They just hiked us in circles with an 80-pound pack. There's a lot going through your mind. You're under observation. … They're psychoanalyzing you and picking you apart,” Chet said.
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Chet also mentioned how he thought the camp had been "manipulating his parents the whole time" and had been using them as "whales." He claimed that by keeping him there, the camp would make money, and that Hanks and Wilson had the resources necessary to keep him there for a "long f*****g time." "I was there longer than anybody else that I had seen come or go in the whole program, except for one kid who was there for six months," he said. However, Chet claimed that the encounter helped him discover God and inner peace. "When you have absolutely nothing to occupy your mind … but dead silence, a week feels like a month,” he said.
Chet had remarked in an earlier interview that he had never received an allowance from his famous parents when he was a child. According to The Things, he said, “People assume I lived this super privileged life, richy rich, and that just wasn’t the case. It was actually the opposite. I don’t know if I’m the brokest rich kid or the richest broke kid. … I just wish I could have been more anonymous. They raised me like really, really normally.”
Meanwhile, Chet shared a screenshot of his 12-step program tracker on Instagram in September to mark his progress in recovering. He marked the moment with the caption, "All In. The decision was final. Never going back to that s**t. Ever. This is just the beginning. Today can be the day that changes your life forever."