Robert De Niro is a star who is going to make headlines a lot for his performances in film. But one was probably not expecting him to make headlines recently for announcing that he just had a baby. His seventh child. At the age of 79. And yet, that’s just what happened earlier this week when De Niro was forced to correct an interviewer, who made reference to the fact that he had six children. There’s a lot that we don’t know about the situation, but it turns out one person who does know a bit is Billy Crystal.
Crystal and De Niro co-starred together in the comedy Analyze This and its sequel and the two have apparently remained friends since then as they saw each other not too long ago, just a couple of weeks before the new baby was born. Crystal told People he was thrilled for his friend, calling the baby “a beautiful thing” and saying…
I was with him two weeks before the baby was born. You know, it's amazing.
A few more details have come out since De Niro revealed the new baby, including that he welcomed the new baby with his current girlfriend Tiffany Chen. Chen is a martial arts instructor from New York. She and De Niro reportedly met when Chen had a small role in 2015’s The Intern, which starred De Niro alongside Anne Hathaway, but the relationship began several years later, amidst De Niro’s divorce from Grace Hightower.
The couple has kept their relationship very private, so it wasn’t entirely clear if they were still together but that does seem to be the case. Kim Cattrell, who co-stars with De Niro in the new movie About My Father, referenced Chen by name to Extra when discussing the new baby, seemingly confirming the child is theirs.
Billy Crystal also spoke a bit about De Niro and Chen as a couple, saying that having the baby was something they want to do together, and calling it all "wonderful."
I can’t personally imagine how a 79-year-old man is going to handle a newborn considering I’m about half his age and my kids exhaust me as it is, but more power to Robert De Niro. The man has had seven kids over the course of the last 50 years and so clearly raising children is something that he wants to do.
De Niro finally gave up some additional details about the new addition to his family when talking to CBS This Morning The baby is a girl named Gia Virginia Chen-DeNiro. Births can be stressful and complicated but it certainly sounds like there were no issues here and everybody is happy and healthy. Which is good since they won’t be getting a lot of sleep over the next few months.
