The daughter of Robert De Niro, Drena, is sadly going through every mother’s nightmare of losing her young child. The Goodfellas actor’s grandson Leandro, passed away at the age of 19 from a lethal drug combination. While in mourning, Drena breaks her silence on her son’s death and sets the record straight on his experience with drugs.
Addiction is unfortunately a disease that is still widely misunderstood today. According to a medical examiner’s report on TMZ, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez died from “the toxic effects of fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine, and cocaine." Drena De Niro made a post on Instagram in response to the negativity she’s received about the circumstances of her 19-year-old son’s death due to drugs. Take a look at the honest post down below.
Drena De Niro made it clear in her post that there are still so many inaccurate facts about addiction that lead to vicious “trolling” instead of comfort. Addiction is a disease that no one asks for and deserves no judgment for it. According to a recent report from the CDC, monthly overdose deaths from youth ages 10-19 have increased by 109% from July-December of 2019 to July-December of 2021. De Niro has been doing her part in breaking the stigma of addiction by having the courage to speak in an honest manner about the need for people to be further educated.
Following her post, the adopted daughter of Robert De Niro has received a number of supportive responses. One of them came from Entourage’s Debi Mazar who thanked De Niro for her courageous words and advised her to “tune out the noise of toxic people.” Model Linda Evangelista also made sure to express her sympathy to the grieving mother and how her brave words are already helping to spread awareness. Many other comments pointed out this American actress and filmmaker's boldness in speaking the truth about addiction and her personal experience with her son. I’d like to believe her father is very proud of her.
Robert De Niro heard about the passing of his grandson a couple of months after announcing he’d be a father again at 79. His heartbreaking response to Leandro’s death included being grateful for everyone’s condolences and giving the family privacy during this time. The 19-year-old was planning on following in his family’s footsteps towards acting. He co-starred with his mother in Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born and they appeared together in The Collection and Cabaret Maxime. Other credits of his included Great Expectations, Joy, and Hands of Stone.
Drena De Niro breaking the silence of addiction and talking of her son’s struggles with it show that more conversations need to be had about this devastating, yet ongoing topic. Through education and understanding, more can potentially be done in terms of treatment so premature deaths like Leandro’s don’t continue happening. You can watch the 2023 movie release of Robert De Niro’s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon coming to your Apple TV+ subscription on October 6th.
