Tom Hanks admitted he didn’t have a rather basic life skill until he began dating now-wife Rita Wilson almost 40 years ago.
The Hollywood legend celebrated his 36th wedding anniversary to actress Wilson earlier this year on April 30.
The pair first crossed paths in 1981 when Wilson made a guest appearance on Hanks‘ ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies.
While Hanks was married to wife Samantha Lewes at the time, he and Wilson hit it off as friends.
They went public with their relationship in 1986, with Hanks and Lewes splitting up a while beforehand, before finalizing their divorce in 1987.
Now, when you imagine going out with a Hollywood legend, you’d fantasize that they’d have it all: the looks, the money and the wits.
Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks during the filming of Volunteers in 1985, three years before they wed (Aaron Rapoport/Corbis via Getty Images
But if you’d thought Hanks would be a proactive planner – you’d be wrong.
Speaking to E! News about their marriage back in April, Hanks admitted: “Periodically this lady sits me down and we pull out the books. We look at the year. We ponder the work that’s gotta get done.”
He added that making a plan and following it through is ‘a skill that I did not have until I met Rita Wilson’.
Surprising, right? You’d think forward planning would be a given with Hanks’ A-list success.
Tom Hanks as Kip Wilson in 1980’s Bosom Buddies, where he met future wife Rita Wilson (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
Hanks and Wilson, who share sons of Chet, 33, and Truman, 28, previously revealed the key indicators to a long-lasting marriage.
Talking to PEOPLE in 2015, Hanks revealed that, well, there’s no one secret to making it work.
“I wish there was a secret, you know,” he said. “We just like each other. You start there.”
He went on to confess that he ‘still can’t believe’ his wife goes out with him.
“If we were in high school and I was just funny, I’d never have the courage to talk to her,” he added.
Tom and Rita have been married for 36 years (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)
On whether his marriage is ‘hard work,’ Hanks hit back: “No it’s not. Every now and again you know, you gotta get over some stuff but life is one damn thing after another and it’s actually more pleasant to be able to go home with someone you like to spend time with in order to get with it.”
But he did offer some marriage advice to any singletons out there.
“No one should get married before they’re 30,” he said. Hanks was just 21 years old when he married ex-wife Lewes in 1978. Ouch.