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Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson
Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an eight-year-old boy who wrote to him about being bullied about his name, ‘Corona’. Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP via Getty Images
Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an eight-year-old boy who wrote to him about being bullied about his name, ‘Corona’. Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Tom Hanks pens heartfelt letter to bullied Australian boy named Corona

This article is more than 4 years old

Eight-year-old Corona De Vries wrote to the Hollywood star after the actor and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for Covid-19

Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied about his name, Corona.

Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Gold Coast in Queensland, wrote to the Hollywood star after the actor and his wife, Rita Wilson, spent more than two weeks in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

The boy wrote to Hanks saying: “I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus,” Channel Seven reported. “Are you OK?”

.@tomhanks has written a heart-felt letter to a young Helensvale boy named Corona. The 8-year-old was being bullied at school and decided to write to the Hollywood superstar and his wife @RitaWilson, after they were diagnosed with Coronavirus. https://t.co/6l2nzFJNn5 #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/H02WF2dRCx

— 7NEWS Gold Coast (@7NewsGoldCoast) April 23, 2020

He said he loved his name but people at school called him the coronavirus, which made him “sad and angry”.

“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!” Hanks replied in a letter typed on a Corona typewriter which he had taken to the Gold Coast.

“You know, you are the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona – like the ring around the sun, a crown,” the double Oscar winner wrote to the boy.

“I thought this typewriter would suit you,” an image of the letter showed. “Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back.”

Hanks hand wrote at the end: “P.S. You got a friend in ME!”

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