Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are officially Greek citizens

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson own a home on the Greek island of Antiparos
1/52
George Fenwick27 July 2020
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have become Greek citizens.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posed with the Hollywood stars and his own wife Mareva Grabowski on Instagram, with Hanks and Wilson showing off their new passports.

@ritawilson @tomhanks are now proud Greek citizens!” he wrote.

The celebrity couple have holidayed in Greece for years and own a home on the island of Antiparos.

Wilson’s mother Dorothea Tzigkou was Greek, and grew up in Albania near the border with Greece.

The actress traced her ancestry on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2012, with her father a Bulgarian Muslim who emigrated to the US in 1949.

Earlier this year, Hanks and Wilson were made honorary citizens of Greece, which the Green Mile actor celebrated with a photo from Antiparos.

“Starting 2020 as an Honorary citizen of all of Greece!” he wrote. “Kronia pola! ( more or less, “happy year!”). Hanx.”

The honorary citizenship was granted due to “exceptional services to Greece,” according to Athens authorities.

That included the support Hanks and his family had provided after a devastating fire in the resort town of Mati, near Athens, in 2018.

“The Hanks family gave a signal all over the world for immediate relief actions to help our fire-stricken fellow citizens,” said the order.

Hanks and Wilson were among the first celebrities to get coronavirus after falling ill in Australia in March.

Hanks revealed in April that he and Wilson would be donating blood to assist in the search for a vaccine.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in