Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks' only daughter Elizabeth Ann, who is the star's second child, has made claims her late mother was "emotionally and physically violent" in an upcoming book. The Forrest Gump star, 68, was married to Elizabeth Ann's mother Susan Dillingham in 1978 prior to finding Hollywood fame. The couple welcomed two children, Elizabeth Ann and her older brother actor Colin Hanks, before they split in 1987

Susan got primary custody of the children and Elizabeth Ann – who goes by EA – alleges this is when the abuse began occurring. Her new book The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road, sees her undertake a six-month road trip from Los Angeles to Palatka, Florida – where her mum's family once lived - and confront her dark past. She indicates she hoped to learn more about her mum on the trip and speculates she had bipolar though she was never diagnosed.

In an excerpt from the upcoming memoir, which is set for release on Tuesday April 8, she wrote: "I was born in Burbank, but after my parents split up, my mother took my older brother and me to live in Sacramento. I have few memories of the early years in Los Angeles.

"Eventually a divorce agreement was settled, and I would visit my dad and stepmother (and soon enough my younger half brothers) on the weekends and during summers, but from 5 to 14, years filled with confusion, violence, deprivation, and love, I was a Sacramento girl. I lived in a white house with columns, a backyard with a pool, and a bedroom with pictures of horses plastered on every wall.

"As the years went on, the backyard became so full of dog s**t that you couldn’t walk around it, the house stank of smoke. The fridge was bare or full of expired food more often than not, and my mother spent more and more time in her big four-poster bed, poring over the Bible.

"One night, her emotional violence became physical violence, and in the aftermath I moved to Los Angeles, right smack in the middle of the seventh grade (year eight in UK)."

Elizabeth Ann went on to explain that this marked a shift in her living arrangements as she moved to L.A. to reside with her father while visiting her mother at weekends.

She revealed that her mother called her to tell her she was dying in her senior year of high school. Susan later died of lung cancer in 2002, when Elizabeth Ann was just 19.

Tom went on to marry Rita Wilson and welcome children Chet and Truman - Elizabeth Ann's half brothers.

Express.co.uk has contacted representatives for Tom Hanks for comment.