Robert De Niro’s Family Guide: Meet His Children, Their Mothers
Full house! While Robert de Niro is one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors, he is also proud of his role as the father of seven children.
The Oscar winner grew older in 1976 when he welcomed son Raphael with his first wife, Dianne Abbottwhom he married after working on the film Cab driver together. The Raging bull star also adopted Abbott’s daughter Drena from a previous relationship.
After divorcing the singer in 1988, De Niro moved on Touki Smith. The pair welcomed twins Aaron and Julian via surrogate in 1995. A year after the arrival of their sons, Godfather actor and the 227 alum quit.
De Niro casually dated after his breakup with the model, but he later settled down with Grace Hightower. The duo married in 1997, a year before the philanthropist gave birth to their son Elliot. In 1999, the Internal star filed for divorce and sought custody of his fifth child. However, De Niro and Hightower rekindled their romance and renewed their vows in 2004. They later welcomed daughter Helen in 2011.
Their reconciliation didn’t last forever – De Niro and Hightower called it quits for good in 2018 after 20 years of marriage.
“Grace and I have two beautiful children together. We are entering a transition period in our relationship, which is a difficult but constructive process,” the Golden Globe winner said in a statement to Us weekly at the time.
After splitting from Hightower, the Irish actor opened up exclusively to Us about navigating fatherhood with his big brood.
“I love my kids, I’m just with them,” he gushed in April 2019. “It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s fun and you love your kids, and sometimes you want to kill them! you forget the moments that were not good.”
Four years later, the Good day star revealed that he had secretly welcomed his seventh child. In a May 2023 interview with ET Canada, De Niro was asked about his “six children” before clarifying the number. “Seven actually. I just had a baby,’ he replied. (The About my father star was 79 at the time.)
De Niro confirmed that CBS‘ Gayle King later that month he and girlfriend Tiffany Chen – whom he started dating in 2021 – were the proud parents of daughter Gia, who arrived in April 2023.
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Keep scrolling to get to know all of De Niro’s kids and their moms: