() — Tom Hanks has starred in some of the most iconic movies of all time, but he skipped out on the 1989 classic “When Harry Met Sally” because of a personal matter, according to his wife Rita Wilson.
“People probably don’t know this, but Tom was offered (to be a part of) ‘When Harry Met Sally,'” Wilson said on Tuesday’s episode of “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” by iHeartPodcasts.
Wilson revealed that the actor ultimately turned down the opportunity, where he would have played Harry Burns opposite Meg Ryan’s Sally Albright in the romantic comedy, because he “was going through a divorce” when the film was being produced.
“And I was so happy not to be married,” Wilson said, adding with a laugh that Hanks “couldn’t understand how a person going through a divorce would feel anything other than ‘I’m so happy.'”
Actor Billy Crystal ended up playing Burns, a character struggling to come to terms with the end of his marriage, in the film, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination at the 1990 ceremony.
Hanks was married previously with Samantha Lewes in 1978 and had two children, including actor Colin Hanks. Their marriage ended in 1987. Hanks subsequently married Wilson. They have two children and celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary in May.
Wilson also spoke with Bozzi about his love for the late legendary screenwriter and director Nora Ephron, who wrote “When Harry Met Sally,” and how much he adored the script when he read it. Ephron died in 2012 at age 71.
Hanks and Ryan had their moment together on the big screen when they starred in the romantic comedy “Joe Versus the Volcano,” directed by John Patrick Shanley, in 1990.
Hanks and Ryan dominated the romantic comedy genre in the 1990s when they starred in Ephron’s 1993 classic “Sleepless in Seattle,” which also starred Wilson. They later reunited in Ephron’s 1998 film “You’ve Got Mail.”
