Rita Wilson was left speechless when she learned on a genealogy show in 2012 that her father Alan Wilson had a secret second family.
On Wednesday’s episode of the How to Fail podcast, the actress recalled the “shocking and unusual” circumstances of her father’s first marriage on British genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?
Noting that “these family trees can go back many generations,” the “Sleepless in Seattle” star, 69, explained that her father Alan was “married and had children” in Bulgaria before immigrating to the United States.
“I said, ‘Are you going to meet someone? Are you going to see your family?'” she recalled asking.
“He was a little boy,” Wilson explained, but said producers told him “no” and that he wouldn’t meet his family.
According to the Now and Then actress, her father was married to a woman named Alice, who died a few days after giving birth to a son they named Emil.
Sadly, Emile also passed away four months later. Rita said she learned her family was “very poor.”
“It was right after the war in Bulgaria,” she said. “I don’t know how they got the powdered milk and stuff like that, but they definitely paved the way.”
Rita said the infant, who was just a few months old, died from an infection “not from starvation”.
Rita’s father then married her mother, Dorothy Wilson, and together the couple welcomed Rita, Chris, and Lily Wilson.
The actress, who married Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks in 1988, lamented that her parents were “so secretive” about the affair. “He didn’t say anything to us,” she said. “I wish I could have talked to him about it.”
The mother of two sons also said her parents were “uneducated, but incredibly smart, incredibly intuitive, extremely hardworking (and had incredible values).”
The actress said she is in awe of her father, who “raised a family” and “bought a house” while working as a bartender.
“He never had any debt in his life. He and my mom were married for 59 years and they were a great couple and great parents,” Rita exclaimed.
