Robert De Niro teared up while talking about becoming a father again at the age of 80.
“It feels great,” De Niro gushed in a video coinciding with his appearance on the cover of the February/March 2024 issue of AARP The Magazine. “Everything that I’m consumed with or worried about just goes away when I look at her. It’s wondrous.”
De Niro got visibly emotional while confessing that fatherhood has made his life better. “When she gets older — who knows? But that very sweet way she has of looking at you, taking you in, thinking and watching and observing,” he shared about his 9-month-old daughter, Gia, whom he welcomed with girlfriend Tiffany Chen.
In addition to Gia, De Niro also shares son Raphael, 46, with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott and is the adoptive father of Abbott’s daughter Drena, 52, from a previous relationship. In 1995, De Niro and Toukie Smith welcomed twins Julian and Aaron, now 27. He shares son Elliot, 25, and daughter Helen, 11, with ex-wife Grace Hightower.
De Niro started dating Chen, 46, in 2021. He shocked fans in May 2023 when he revealed that he was officially a father of seven.
“I have certain awareness — when you’re older you have awareness of certain things in life, dynamics, everything, family dynamics,” De Niro told Hoda Kotb later that month about becoming a dad again. “You can’t avoid learning certain things and how you can deal with those and manage them and this and that, the usual.”
De Niro subsequently told The Guardian in October 2023 that having a newborn was an adjustment, explaining, “With a baby it’s different [than] with my 11-year-old. My adult children. My grandchildren. It’s all different. Well, I don’t talk to the adult children the way I talk to my baby or the way I speak to my 11-year-old, though she’s pretty smart.”
At the time, De Niro admitted that he wasn’t the one doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to parenting. “I’m there, I support my girlfriend. But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important,” he noted. “Of course I do. [I am happy with] all of it.”
The actor’s personal life has been a hot topic as he continues to promote his film The Killers of the Flower Moon, which was recently nominated for 10 Oscars. While attending the 2024 Golden Globes earlier this month, De Niro found himself at the center of one of host Jo Koy‘s more awkward jokes.
“Yo, Robert De Niro’s here,” Koy, 52, said before responding to a heckler in the crowd. “Yo, I got this gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Shut up. You’re kidding me, right? I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
Koy went on to poke fun at De Niro’s relationship with Chen, adding, “I’m a bit awestruck, this guy’s amazing decade after decade just kills it every single time. I don’t know how you do it, man. Your last performance has got to be your greatest performance ever. How’d you get her pregnant at 80?”
De Niro, however, didn’t appear fazed by Koy’s humor. He even shared a laugh with Chen, who was by his side at the awards show.
