Tom Hanks' rapper son Chet confirms baby news

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson's rapper son Chet Hanks confirmed he is father to a baby girl in an emotional Instagram video on Wednesday (07Dec16).

The 26-year-old son of the Hollywood couple hit headlines when In Touch Weekly magazine reported Chet has an eight-month-old daughter following a fling with a woman called Tiffany.

While Chet didn't go into details about his daughter, he did confirm her existence as he took to Instagram, also crediting the tot for helping him turn his life around and get sober after years of drug addiction issues.

“I know I’ve not been active on the ‘Gram (Instagram) lately, because I’ve been figuring out my life, which is what we’re all doing, and social media’s all bulls**t anyway,” Chet, who is currently working as a drug counselor, began the video.

"I want to share something today because it's about to be shared anyway in the press, which is the fact that I have a daughter. I do have a daughter, she's the best thing that’s ever happened to me, she's the reason why I turned my life around and got sober. I've been sober - for over a year and a half - from everything."

While Chet made an appearance on the social media site, he added to fans that he won't be sharing any pictures or videos of his baby girl. Writing in the caption for the video, "No disrespect to people that post their kids, I just I never wanted her to be dragged into the negativity surrounding my past.

“She’s not something to be posted...She’s something that I love, that’s changed my life but the fact is she’s about to be shared with everybody so I wanted you to hear it from me... It hasn't been easy making all my mistakes in public but I'm figuring it out. I'm doing the best that I can."

While he didn't confirm the identity of the mom, he blasted the media's "crass" portrayal of her, and called her an "excellent mother" and "one of the nicest people I know."

The infant is Rita's first grandchild, but Hanks is also grandfather to his eldest son Colin Hanks' daughters, Charlotte and Olivia.

Colin is the actor's son from his first marriage to late actress Samantha Lewes.