Along with having a career that spans decades, Robert De Niro has also been parenting for more than 50 years. Over the last five decades, he’s welcomed seven kids into the world. Now, as his latest movie, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, prepares to premiere, the 80-year-old actor is opening up about raising a new baby, and while he loves it, he said “it doesn’t get easier.”
De Niro welcomed his baby this spring. This is his seventh child, and his first with his girlfriend Tiffany Chen. While speaking with The Guardian he opened up about their baby, and what it’s like parenting. While he’s done this many times before, he explained that it hasn’t gotten easier. The Raging Bull star said:
It doesn’t get easier. It is what it is. It’s OK. I mean, I don’t do the heavy lifting. I’m there, I support my girlfriend. But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important.
The Taxi Driver actor explained that “you never know what’s going to happen” as a parent, but he also said he really does enjoy being a father. When asked what he loves about it, he said:
All of it! With a baby it’s different to with my 11-year-old. My adult children. My grandchildren. It’s all different.
Elaborating on interacting with his seven kids, he explained that he talks to his adult children differently than how he talks to his baby.
Robert De Niro was 28 when his first child was born in 1971, and his youngest baby was born in early 2023.
The actor and his first wife Diahnne Abbott share Drena De Niro, who is 52, and Raphael De Niro, 46. After they got divorced, the Goodfellas actor and his girlfriend at the time Toukie Smith had twins, Julian and Aaron De Niro, in 1995, they are now 27. In 1995, De Niro, and his now ex-wife Grace Hightower had their first kid, Elliot De Niro, who is 24. Their second child, Helen Grace is 11, and she was born via surrogate in 2011. He also has four grandchildren – Drena’s son was born in 2003 and sadly passed away in July 2023, and Raphael has three kids.
Over the years, De Niro has learned a lot about being a dad, and he opened up about the “awareness” he’s developed about parenting later in life. He also explained that overall “it’s amazing,” and he noted that he is “very happy about” being a father.
Along with being a parent, Robert De Niro is also a very busy actor. Along with Killers of the Flower Moon, he also released another movie on the 2023 film schedule called About My Father, and he appeared in the mini-series Nada. He also has six projects in development, including Wise Guys, which should drop among 2024’s new movie releases.
While Robert De Niro continues to raise his kids and work on various movies and TV shows, you can go see his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, in theaters starting on October 20, and you’ll eventually be able to stream it with an Apple TV+ subscription.
