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Robert De Niro couldn’t help but get choked up while discussing being an 80-year-old dad to his daughter, Gia. The Academy Award nominee became emotional in a new interview while talking about how “wondrous” it’s been raising his 9-month-old child so far.
“It’s great,” Robert told AARP The Magazine in a video interview that was shared on Thursday, January 25. “Everything that I’m consumed with or worried about or this and that just goes away when I look at her. It’s wondrous.”
After visibly trying to fight back tears, the Silver Linings Playbook actor noted that he wants “to be around for as long as I can to enjoy it, to enjoy her.”
“When she gets older — who knows?” he said, adding, “But that very sweet way she has of looking at you, and just taking you in. And my other daughter, Helen, had that too. They just look at you and take it in. So, I don’t know where it’s gonna go with her later when she gets older, but she’s thinking, she’s observing everything and watching. It’s really interesting.”
Robert shares Gia — who was born in April 2023 — with his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen. Gia is their first child together. In addition to his baby girl, the Taxi Driver star is also a dad to Helen and Eliot, whom he shares with ex-wife Grace Hightower, daughter Drena and son Raphael, whom Robert shares with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott and his twin sons, Julian and Aaron, whom he shares with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith.
Since most of his children are adults now, Robert has several grandchildren. However, he lost his grandson, Leandro “Leo” De Niro Rodriguez, in July 2023, Drena confirmed at the time. Leandro died from combining drugs.
Robert released a statement to Hollywood Life shortly after Leo’s death, saying, “I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo. We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo.”
Since the Killers of the Flower Moon star is focused on caring for his whole family, he mourned the loss of his grandson privately with the rest of his children and grandkids.
As the supportive dad that he is, Robert previously opened up to PEOPLE about what advice he would offer his children if they chose to become actors.
“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,’” he said in 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.”
