A Guide to 2024 Oscar Nominee Robert De Niro's Big Family
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Robert De Niro has yet to hear his last name called at one of the big awards shows this season, but the iconic actor's presence has remained undeniable.
While his chilling performance in Killers of the Flower Moon had the misfortune of being judged against Robert Downey Jr.'s villainous, unrecognizable turn as the titular physicist's chief nemesis in Oppenheimer, the 80-year-old has enjoyed stellar reviews for his portrayal of the real-life mastermind behind a murderous plot to strip members of Osage Nation of their oil wealth in 1920s-era Oklahoma.
So though Downey is expected to be named Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Oscars on March 10, denying De Niro his third Academy Award, the nine-time nominee will still be front and center with his Killers family, including Best Director contender Martin Scorsese and Best Actress frontrunner Lily Gladstone.
Of course, De Niro also has a sizable cheering section in the form of his actual family, which grew in 2023 with the birth of his seventh child and ended up fodder for one of the raciest jokes told by host Jo Koy at the Golden Globes in January.
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"I'm a fan, I'm fanning out, I love you Robert," Koy said in his monologue. "Decade after decade, he just kills it, every single time, I don't know how you do it. Your last performance is going to be your greatest performance ever. How you'd get her pregnant at 80?! CGI? CGI!"
The crack may have been cringe, but De Niro and girlfriend Tiffany Chen—with whom he shares now-11-month-old daughter Gia—enjoyed a good laugh on the live CBS broadcast.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel will have to go another route if he shouts out De Niro in his monologue—Killers of the Flower Moon's 10 nominations and 206-minute running time make the prospect highly likely—because the having-a-baby-at-80 bit has been done.
But if you're curious about the prolific actor's (re)production history, read on for a guide to De Niro's sprawling family:
First Wife Diahnne Abbott
Robert De Niro met his first wife, Diahnne Abbott, while making Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, in which she had a bit part as the ticket taker at a porn theater Travis Bickle patronizes in the gritty 1976 classic.
They tied the knot April 28, 1976.
The couple also appeared together in Scorsese's 1977 tortured-romance drama New York, New York and his 1982 satire The King of Comedy.
Daughter Drena De Niro
The actor adopted Diahnne's daughter Drena, born Sept. 3, 1971, when they got married.
Son Raphael De Niro
De Niro and Abbott's son Raphael was born Nov. 9, 1976. Raphael later recalled the family moving from Los Angeles (where his father was born) to New York (the city his dad is most associated with) when he was about 10, telling The Real Deal it was a major "culture shock."
Raphael's parents divorced in 1988.
Drena and Raphael
Drena, whose first Instagram post is a black-and-white snap of her as a child out to dinner with her parents and then-couple Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston ("at this point all I wonder is WTF was I doing there ???" she wrote), has remained in show business as an actor and producer.
Growing up, "it definitely wasn't the typical family lifestyle," she told Everything Zoomer, "but there was a lot of warmth, fun, craziness." She described her father as "a non-judgmental, open-minded person, always accepting of what people feel their paths are."
Raphael went into real estate, which also runs in the family. Per his website, he leads The De Niro Team at Douglas Elliman in Manhattan, and he's a partner in TriBeCa's Greenwich Hotel.
The 46-year-old shares three kids with ex-wife Claudine de Matos and has been married to stylist Hannah Carnes since March 2020.
Acknowledging his last name alone turned him into fodder for tabloid coverage, Raphael told The Real Deal, "I just try to keep my head down and keep my private life private."
Grandson Leandro
Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, Drena's son with artist ex Carlos Rodriguez, died of a suspected overdose on July 2, 2023. He was 19.
A 20-year-old woman was arrested two weeks later on federal drug distribution charges in connection with Leandro's death, which his mother had quickly attributed to fentanyl-laced pills.
On Aug. 11, 2023, which would have been her son's 20th birthday, Drena wrote on Instagram, "Thank you for the happiest and most profound 2 decades of my life, little angel. I hope you are at peace and your spirit is filled with joy today and always."
De Niro called his grandson's death a "shock," telling People, "And I just then started thinking about all the things I could have, should have done maybe with him. I don't know if that would've made a difference. And so that's always playing through my mind. It shouldn't have happened."
Twin Sons With Touki Smith
De Niro and model-actress Touki Smith are parents to twin sons Julian and Aaron, born Oct. 20, 1995.
The actor and Smith, who at one point also owned a catering business that handled the food for then-couple Sean Penn and Madonna's anniversary party, split up in 1996 after eight years together.
Son Julian De Niro
While Aaron leads a private life, Julian is an actor who most recently appeared on Broadway in the Tony-nominated The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. In 2022 he played a young Barack Obama in the Showtime limited series The First Lady.
"For my kids, I tell them, 'If you want to be an actor or you want to do this or that, that's fine as long as you're happy. Just don't sell yourself short,'" De Niro told People in January 2020. "That's the most I would say—push yourself a little more and reach for what you really think it is you want to do. Don't be afraid."
Son Elliot and Daughter Helen With Second Wife Grace Hightower
De Niro is dad to son Elliot, born March 18, 1998, and daughter Helen Grace, born via surrogate on Dec. 23, 2011, with second wife Grace Hightower.
He married the Precious actress on June 17, 1997. De Niro filed for divorce barely two years later, but they reconciled before the split was official and renewed their vows in 2004.
They again began divorce proceedings in 2018.
When promoting Silver Linings Playbook, in which he played a father of an adult son with bipolar disorder, De Niro opened up about having a child with special needs, telling Katie Couric in 2013, "I don't like to get emotional, but I know exactly what [my character] goes through." In 2016 he shared that Elliott has autism.
<p>Daughter Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro With Tiffany Chen</p>
De Niro's seventh child was born April 6, 2023.
CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King got to do the name-reveal honors on her show May 11. "How cute is this baby?" she said of then-1-month-old Gia. "Robert De Niro and his partner, that's Tiffany Chen, are over the moon about this little girl."
While the two-time Oscar winner admittedly doesn't do the "heavy lifting," he waxed rhapsodic about having a baby in the house.
"Everything that I'm consumed with or worried about just goes away when I look at her," he told AARP. "It's wondrous."
The 2024 Academy Awards air live Sunday, March 10, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. ET/4 to 7:30 p.m. PT on ABC. And don't miss E!'s Oscars red carpet starting at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on E!.
