The Forrest Gump star was repprtedly approached by the film's writer Nora Ephron about the lead part, however he turned down the offer, claiming that he was unable to relate to the idea of the character being depressed after getting divorced.
Hanks who had recently divorced his first wife Samantha Lewis at the time, went on to subsequently appear in further Ephron romcoms, 'Sleepless In Seattle' and 'You've Got Mail'.
The Oscar winning actor's 'When Harry Met Sally' snub was confirmed by his current wife Rita Wilson, in a recent interview.
“People probably don’t know this, but Tom was offered when Harry Met Sally and he turned it down because he was going through a divorce and he was very happy to be not married", WIlson said.
She added, “And so he could not understand that a person going through a divorce would have anything other than just like, ‘I’m so happy’. But I loved that script".
Having approached Michael Keaton, Richard Dreyfuss, Billy Murray, Albert Brooks, and Harrison Ford, the role eventually went to Billy Crystal, starring alongside Meg Ryan in the 1989 film, who also co-starred alongside Hanks in 'You've Got Mail', a few years later.
