Photo: Pete Souza / The White House, public domain License.
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Robert De Niro appeared with Ben Stiller and Ariana Grande on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on November 8, 2026, promoting their family comedy Focker-in-Law. Off screen, the Oscar-winning actor has a much larger real family: seven children born across more than five decades.
His children are Drena, Raphael, twins Julian and Airyn, Elliot, Helen Grace and Gia Virginia. Their mothers are Diahnne Abbott, Toukie Smith, Grace Hightower and Tiffany Chen. De Niro’s youngest daughter, Gia, was born in April 2023.
The family’s most recent difficult news concerns Smith, whose children announced that she died on November 4, 2026. Julian and Airyn are the actor’s children with the model and actress, and their loss belongs to their own family story as well as the wider public interest in De Niro.
Some older lists use a former name for Airyn or describe the twins in language that is no longer current. A present-day family profile should use Airyn’s name and distinguish the children accurately without treating old coverage as the final word.
Who are Robert De Niro’s older children, Drena, Raphael, Julian and Airyn?
Drena was born in 1971 to actress Diahnne Abbott. De Niro adopted her after marrying Abbott in 1976. She has worked in entertainment in her own right, with credits in acting and production as well as a background in modeling.
The adoption is part of their publicly documented father-daughter relationship. Calling her his daughter is accurate; it is unnecessary to describe her as less a part of the family because they are not biologically related.
Raphael, born in 1976, is De Niro and Abbott’s son. He appeared in films before establishing a career in New York real estate. His professional path is one example of how the actor’s adult children have pursued different lives rather than all becoming screen performers.
Julian and Airyn were born on October 20, 1995, during De Niro’s relationship with Smith. Their birth was through a surrogate. Smith and De Niro were partners, not husband and wife, and their relationship should not be added to his list of marriages.
Julian has acting credits, including portraying a young Barack Obama in The First Lady. Airyn spoke publicly about her identity in a 2025 interview with Them. Current reporting identifies her as De Niro’s daughter and uses the name Airyn.
After Smith’s death, the twins shared the news and paid tribute to their mother. Their public statement is the basis for reporting her death, while private details beyond what the family disclosed should not be inferred.
Who are Elliot, Helen Grace and Gia, and who are their mothers?
Elliot was born on March 18, 1998, to De Niro and Grace Hightower. The couple had married in 1997. He is generally less public than the members of the family who work in film or other prominent professions.
De Niro and Hightower later welcomed Helen Grace in December 2011. Her arrival came after the couple’s reconciliation and vow renewal. They announced their separation in 2018, but remain Helen and Elliot’s parents regardless of that change in their relationship.
The youngest child is Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro, born on April 6, 2023. Her mother is De Niro’s current partner, martial arts instructor Tiffany Chen. De Niro was 79 when she was born.
The public learned he had become a father again during an interview in May 2023. When an interviewer referred to his six children, he corrected the count to seven. The baby’s name and birth date were subsequently shared publicly.
Chen is not the mother of the actor’s six older children. Likewise, Hightower is the mother of Elliot and Helen, rather than the entire family. Keeping those relationships clear prevents an often complicated family tree from becoming misleading.
What has Robert De Niro said about raising a family across several generations?
De Niro has spoken about enjoying time with his children while acknowledging that parenting is difficult. His comments describe a continuing responsibility, not a role that ended once his older children became adults.
The age differences mean his experience includes adult children with independent households and a young daughter still in early childhood. That range is unusual, but it does not establish that all seven share the same daily routine or live in one home.
Some of the children have chosen public careers, while others maintain a lower profile. A family account can explain their names, mothers and established milestones without inventing occupations, intimate relationships or current whereabouts for those who share little publicly.
The accurate current count is seven. It includes Drena, whom he adopted, and it includes Airyn under her present name. Those details matter as much as the attention surrounding Gia’s arrival, because they keep the account focused on the real people who make up De Niro’s family.
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