Robert De Niro, a celebrated cinema actor for decades, has made a rare move to the small screen with a new Netflix thriller. In the six-part limited series Zero Day, the renowned Goodfellas star plays George Mullen, a respected former president investigating cyberterrorism while battling his personal demons.
The gripping drama also features a stellar cast of A-listers and award-winners, including Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton, and Matthew Modine. As De Niro takes the lead in his first Netflix series, fans are keen to learn more about his off-screen life.
De Niro has been married twice in his career, first in 1976 to actress Diahnne Abbott, with whom he had several collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. He adopted her daughter, Drena, from a previous relationship, but they divorced in 1988. He later married actress Grace Hightower in 1997. They separated for several years in 1999, but renewed their vows in 2004.
Ten years later, they moved into a 6,000-square-foot apartment in Central Park West, New York. However, after another four years, they separated after 20 years of marriage, reports the Mirror US. The legendary Taxi Driver actor, Robert De Niro, has embraced fatherhood, first adopting Abbott's daughter Drena and recently becoming one of the oldest new dads in the spotlight at the age of 79.
He and Abbott also welcomed their son Raphael in 1976. Between his two marriages, De Niro had a relationship with model Toukie Smith from 1988 to 1996, during which they had twin boys, Julian and Aaron, through IVF and a surrogate mother in 1995. With his second wife Hightower, he welcomed son Elliott in 1998 and later their daughter Helen via surrogate in 2011.
His latest addition to the family is baby Gia, born in 2023 to his current partner, martial arts instructor Tiffany Chen. De Niro faced a health scare when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003 at 60 years old. After surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in December that year, he made a full recovery.
The American Cancer Society shared that De Niro found the diagnosis "a little jarring" but focused on staying strong and making informed decisions, crediting "regular check-ups" for catching the disease early. A vocal Democrat, De Niro has not shied away from political commentary, supporting President Joe Biden's re-election bid in 2024. When Biden stepped aside, De Niro threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.
He has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, famously saying "f*** 'em" to dissenters in a CNN interview where he stated Trump "should not be president" and called him a "gangster". Last year, he labelled Trump a "jerk", "clown", and "idiot" on Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? on Max before his November re-election.
Yet, in a recent Guardian interview, De Niro shared that he's "not despairing" over Trump's potential second term. "Because I always look at the bright side," he said, "and hope that things will right themselves and that people will appreciate goodness and empathy and will try to do the right thing.
"Some people look at [things] differently. They have different values. That's disturbing to me. I don't understand it. But I just have to look at things in an optimistic way.". Family tragedy struck De Niro in July 2023 when his grandson Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, only 19, passed away. Leandro was the son of De Niro's adopted daughter, Drena.
His death was attributed to a lethal mix of fentanyl, cocaine, and other substances. Speaking to PEOPLE, De Niro expressed his shock: "It's just a shock. [I] never thought it would happen. "And I just then started thinking about all the things I could have, should have done maybe with him. I don't know if that would've made a difference. And so that's always playing through my mind.".
