Rita Wilson told Tom Hanks after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 that if she were to die, she wanted him to be “sad for a very long time.”
The actress recalled the couple’s heartfelt conversation about her health battle while speaking with Demi Moore at the Sound of a Woman: Rita Wilson in Conversation event in New York City on Tuesday.
“I said to Tom, I’m like, ‘OK, if, if something happens and I go first, I just have two requests. And one is that you should be sad for a very, very long time,’” Wilson, 69, revealed, per People.
Her second request for Hanks, 69, was to “throw me a party.”
“I want it to be a celebration of life,” Wilson remembered telling Hanks. “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?” she added. “I think there’s room for that.”
Wilson, who has been married to Hanks since 1988, underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery after doctors found “invasive” cancer in 2015.
The “Sleepless in Seattle” star told Moore that her 2019 song “Throw Me a Party” was inspired by her and Hank’s conversation after her diagnosis.
“The song … it came out of this, this story I’ve told before, but if 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,’” Wilson told the crowd.
After reflecting on her cancer battle, Wilson happily told the crowd, “I’m here. Yay!”
In March 2025, Wilson marked a decade since she was cancer-free with a heartfelt Instagram post.
“10 years. And I am so deeply grateful,” Wilson told her followers.
She continued, “The gratitude is overwhelming. Didn’t always feel this way. And you know that, anybody who’s going through [it, or] who’s survived knows that it’s an up and down, like, hamster wheel. But then you get to this point.”
Wilson said that while she doesn’t “talk about it much,” she posted about her cancer-free anniversary because “it’s important to celebrate good news.”
“I am thinking of anybody out there who might be going through some difficulties,” she added. “You’re in my thoughts and prayers.”