Robert De Niro turns 80: best wishes to the Hollywood giant

Recently he has been both a “crazy grandfather” and “an unexpected intern”. Not that there was a need for confirmation on the versatility of Robert De Niro, two-time Academy Award winner (8 nominations), which he will be 80 years old next August 17, but it’s nice to see him try his hand at scult roles (the first) and rom-com (the second case).

Actor Robert De Niro and his son attending a benefit for South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, hosted by Jane Fonda at her home in Santa Monica, CA, January 25th 1986. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)Kevin Winter/Getty Images

However birthday greetings are worth double because it just became dad for the seventh time: Gia was born in April from his relationship with his girlfriend Tiffany Chen, a 45-year-old martial arts champion. Even if you have had postpartum complications due to Bell’s palsy, which makes you lose control over your facial muscles: «When I got home – explains Tiffany Chen – I started to feel that my tongue was strange, it was tingling a bit, it was starting to go numb. I realized that my face felt weird, like it was melting on itself.”

(LR) Tiffany Chen and Robert De Niro attend ‘Kiss The Future’ Tribeca Festival Opening Night documentary, New York, NY, June 7 2023. (Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)ANTHONY BEHAR/SIPA USA / ipa-agency.net

Furthermore, a few months later (on 2 July), news arrived of the death of his nineteen-year-old nephew Leandro (the only son of his daughter Drena). It’s definitely a complicated time for this round-the-clock celebration that will have a bitter aftertaste.

The love life of Robert De Niro, who also has Italian citizenship (his father had Irish and Italian origins), is moreover like a roller coaster. If taken in a broad sense, this phrase also refers to parental affection: the father was removed from home after coming out and the actor was just two years old at the time.

Robert De Niro and son, Elliott, on Sliding Pond in Central Park, NYC (Photo by Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty Images)Lawrence Schwartzwald/Getty Images

In matters of the heart, however, the Oscar winner has had sentimental ties to say the least turbulent. He married twice, first to actress Diahnne Abbott, in 1976 (lasted 12 years and adopted their children Raphael and Drena), and then in 1997 to philanthropist Grace Hightower, from whom he divorced in 2018, after an intermediate separation, a renewal of vows and two children (Elliot and Helen, born via gestation for others) In between, fellow model Toukie Smith conceived in vitro twins, Julian and Aaron.

The artist’s life itself looks like a movie, who always changes gender: he had health problems (prostate cancer), and, in spite of himself, a certain familiarity with the courts for cases brought by him or against him. The latest in chronological order, in 2019, concerns that of an employee from whom he had asked for 6 million compensation for violating the terms of the contract by spending time on Netflix. Graham Chace Robinson, this is the name of the woman, has in turn sued him for gender discrimination.

In Hollywood there are rumors that he has a rather irritable temper. When I met him in London nearly ten years ago for an interview with him and the film’s other lead, he broke off midway through his first response. He stopped talking, cutting off the conversation, got up and went onto the terrace of the suite, saying to my colleague and me: «I’m going to text my nephew». He disappeared and never came back.

Its unpredictability is now a trademark. And so you avoid hassles, including interviews. On the other hand, he has always had his own way, for an amazing 80 years.

Source: Vanity Fair

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