Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are officially citizens of Greece, the country’s prime minister announced.
The famous couple appeared in an Instagram post from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which showed both actors posing with passports alongside Mitsotakis and his wife, Mareva Grabowski.
“@ritawilson @tomhanks are now proud Greek citizens!” the caption read.
Wilson, 63, is of Greek and Bulgarian ancestry. She and Hanks, 64, frequently spend their summer vacations on the Greek island of Antiparos. USA TODAY has reached out to the couple’s representatives for more information.
Last December, Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos signed an honorary naturalization order allowing the actor to claim Greek citizenship, his office told The Associated Press at the time.
Hanks celebrated the news in January, announcing on social media that he was “starting 2020 as an Honorary citizen of all of Greece!”
Under Greek law, honorary naturalization may be granted to people “who have provided exceptional services to the country or whose naturalization serves the public interest.”
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Hanks and Wilson have had a rollercoaster of a year: After celebrating his honorary citizenship in January, Hanks announced March 11 that he and Wilson had contracted the novel coronavirus while in Australia filming Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley movie.
After two weeks of isolation, the couple was able to return to their home in Los Angeles. The have since recovered and Hanks made his first appearance post-coronavirus in April as the first host of a remote “Saturday Night Live” from his kitchen.
Contributing: Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY and The Associated Press.
