Acclaimed actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson are celebrating after officially becoming citizens of Greece.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis broke the news of the duo’s new citizenship in a Sunday Instagram post featuring he and his wife standing outside with the celebrity couple. Hanks and Wilson are seen holding up new passports.
Wilson is part Greek, and Hanks is a convert to the Greek Orthodox Church. The two received honorary citizenships last year after officials lauded their efforts to raise awareness about the 2018 wildfires that ravaged part of the country and killed more than 100 people.
“Tom Hanks is a person who showed real interest in the people who suffered from the fire in Mati and promoted this issue in the global media,” Greek Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos told CNN last year.
During this year’s Golden Globes, Hanks praised Greece’s natural beauty to reporters and highlighted how he has spent much time in the country over the past few decades.
“I’ve been Hellenic now for the better part of 32 years,” Hanks said. “Greece is a haven … I’ve been around the world, I’ve been to the most beautiful places in the world, none of them tops Greece.”
“The land, the sky, the water, it’s good for the soul, it’s a healing place,” he added.
Hanks and Wilson generated headlines earlier this year when they were among the first well-known figures to contract the coronavirus. The two were in Australia when they were diagnosed with COVID-19 and quarantined there.
