Robert De Niro surprised a lot of people when it was revealed that the 80-year-old actor was going to be a father for the seventh time. De Niro’s daughter Gia was born last year to the actor and his partner Tiffany Chen. While De Niro has talked about the difficulties of raising children, he’s certainly had his share of practice, and he seems to truly love it. The actor says the rest of the family is embracing the new addition with open arms.
De Niro’s six other children range in age from 56 to 12, and one of them has children of their own (although one of De Niro's grandchildren passed away last year), making the Oscar winner a grandfather long before he became a father for the seventh time. This does make things a bit complicated, as the newborn is technically an aunt to three teenagers. But it sounds like everybody loves the new member of the family. De Niro tells People…
The kids all get a big kick out of her. The grandkids even. She’s their aunt— [and] they’re about to be teenagers! The fact that they’d all be together is everything to me.
It's not entirely unheard of for children to be born so far apart that two cousins have decades between them, making one of them more like an uncle. or to see a teenager become an aunt or uncle. It is a bit more unusual for your aunt or uncle actually to be younger than you are, but it sounds like De Niro’s three grandkids are around the same age as his 12-year-old daughter, and quite a bit older than their new aunt. It will likely all seem normal for them, though the math is a bit crazy.
News of Robert De Niro’s youngest came as a surprise during an interview last May, when an interviewer referred to his six children, and the actor corrected her, revealing he had just had a seventh. De Niro clearly loves children, and that hasn’t changed with his age. The 2024 Oscar nominee says it’s a “great joy” to spend time with his youngest. He explained…
She’s such an adorable baby. So sweet. [When I] look at her, everything else goes away. So it’s a great joy and relief to just be with her in the moment.
Gia’s dad had other reasons to be proud right now. The two-time Oscar winner was just nominated for his ninth Academy Award for Fillers of the Flowers Moon. We’ll have to wait and see as Gia grows up if she decides the wildest thing about her life is that she’s aunt to kids much older than her, or that her dad is one of the greatest actors who ever lived.
