Rita Wilson Only Has 2 Simple Requests for Husband Tom Hanks

Rita Wilson is a woman who knows what she wants.

During her Sound of a Woman: Rita Wilson in Conversation with Demi Moore event at 92NY in New York City, the Asteroid City disclosed the two requests she has for her husband, Tom Hanks, if she were to pass away first.

PEOPLE reported, "One, is that you should be sad for a very, very long time," she said of the first. As for the second request, she mentioned Hanks should "throw her a party." "I want it to be a celebration of life. I want it to be about people telling stories and joy and remembering me in that way. And I think people, a lot of people want that, you know? I think there's room for that."

Wilson went on to say to Moore and fans that her two petitions for Hanks are embedded in her 2019 song, "Throw Me a Party." She revealed, "The song... it came out of this, this story I've told before, but you haven't heard it, it was, when you get the diagnosis, and you're like, 'I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I hope I'm still here, you know, in a few years.' But I said to Tom... 'Okay, if something happens and I go first, I just have two requests.'"

In 2015, Wilson received her breast cancer diagnosis, and since 2025 has been cancer-free. In 2021, she told Parade in an exclusive interview about some of the struggles she faced and pivotal thoughts she dealt with amid her cancer battle. "It didn't really hit me until about four months later," she began. "When you're going through something like that, you're really focused on just getting through it. I experienced a lot of anxiety at that time, because you let it wash over you. I went back into my mindfulnessmeditation and just tried to stay centered."

"When you're going through something like cancer, you have to speak up. And sometimes it's really hard to speak because you don't want to confront the feelings that you're having yourself - and verbalizing them can make them real or scary. But I would encourage people to just talk about it when possible and not live with fear or anxiety," she added.

Wilson's latest solo album,Sound of a Woman, is scheduled for release on May 1.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 11:44 AM.