Robert De Niro Admits Girlfriend Tiffany Chen Does the "Heavy Lifting" Raising Their Baby Girl

One role Robert De Niro is experiencing all over again? Fatherhood. 

But at 80, child rearing is looking a little bit different for the Killers of the Flower Moon actor, as he revealed that his girlfriend Tiffany Chen takes the lead when it comes to raising 6-month-old daughter Gia.

"It doesn't get easier," Robert said of parenthood in an interview with The Guardian published Oct. 16. "It is what it is. It's OK. I mean, I don't do the heavy lifting. I'm there, I support my girlfriend. But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important."

Baby Gia joins the Oscar winner's six other children: Drena, 51, and Raphael, 46—who he shares with ex Diahnne Abbott—27-year-old twin sons Aaron and Julian with ex Toukie Smith, as well as son Elliot, 25, and daughter Helen, 11, from his marriage to Grace Hightower. 

Yet for the Goodfellas star, fatherhood is a joy that never grows old. 

In fact, when asked which parts of being a dad he enjoys, Robert replied, "All of it! With a baby it's different to with my 11-year-old. My adult children. My grandchildren. It's all different."

But when Tiffany suffered from Bell's palsy during her postpartum recovery—landing her back in the hospital—the Casino actor was sure to be by her side. 

"He was very sweet," she told CBS Morning's Gayle King in July. "He tried to say that he didn't see any difference, he didn't see any change. He was like, 'No…You look fine. Maybe you look a little stern.' And I'm like, 'Really? My whole face is melted on itself.' But he was very strong, very supportive." 

Back in May, Robert subtly confirmed he was now a dad of seven when he reflecting on his family life to ET Canada, noting "I just had a baby."

Just days later, Gayle gave insight into Tiffany and Robert's life with their infant sharing that during a phone call, the Taxi Driver star told her "this baby was planned" and she was "brought here by love."

To learn more about the actor's family tree, keep reading. 

Robert De Niro met his first wife, Diahnne Abbott, while making 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 actor adopted Diahnne's daughter Drena, born Sept. 3, 1971, when they got married.

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."

His parents divorced in 1988.

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."

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, 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 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.

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."

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.

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 about the photo of the 1-month-old. "Robert De Niro and his partner, that's Tiffany Chen, are over the moon about this little girl."

The now 80-year-old first told ET Canada that he'd become a father for the seventh time.

"My kids disagree with me at times, and they're respectful," he shared when asked if his children considered him a cool dad. "My daughter [Helen], she's 11, she gives me grief sometimes and I argue with her. I adore her, but, you know. And my youngest now, that'll be more to come. But that's what it is."

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