Robert De Niro Personal life
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De Niro has twice married. He has a daughter Dreena as well as a son named Raphael from first wife Dianne Abbott, and two sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrick from a long-term, live-in relationship with former super model Toukie Smith. The boys, who are twins, were conceived by in-vitro fertilization.
Raphael, a former actor, is now involved in the New York real-estate market. In late 2004, De Niro re-married his second wife Grace Hightower, a former flight attendant who is ten years his junior.
They had a son, Elliot, in 1998. The couple had filed for divorce shortly thereafter, reportedly over disputes regarding, among other things, De Niro’s workaholic ways; but the action was never finalized.
De Niro and Hightower maintain an expansive residential estate in New Paltz, New York, where they re-married. De Niro has his primary residences on the East and West sides of Manhattan.
De Niro, whose paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Italy, was due to be bestowed with honorary Italian citizenship at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004. However, the Order of Sons of Italy in America lodged a protest with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, claiming De Niro had damaged the image of Italians and Italian-Americans by constantly portraying them in criminal roles. Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani dismissed the objections and the ceremony was rescheduled to go forward in Rome in October.
Controversy flared once again when De Niro failed to show for two media appearances in Italy that October, fueling speculation that he had snubbed the country over the citizenship imbroglio. De Niro, however, denied this, blaming the non-appearances on “serious communication problems” that weren’t “handled properly” on his end, and stating, “The last thing I would want to do is offend anyone. I love Italy.” Urbani hopes to confer the honor soon, but no fixed date has yet been set. Although De Niro is only 1/4 Italian (also being 1/4 Irish, 1/4 German, 1/8 Dutch and 1/8 French-British), he has stated that he identifies “more with (his) Italian side than with (his) other parts.”
De Niro is a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Election, and John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election.
In 1998 he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton, as a personal friend of the Clintons, and in August 2004 announced he would not collect his honorary Italian citizenship in person so as to avoid discouraging Italians living in America from voting for Kerry, following much controversy over De Niro’s allegedly negative and stereotypical portrayal of Italian characters in Hollywood movies.
De Niro was due to be granted with Italian citizenship at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004. However, the Sons of Italy lodged a protest with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, claiming De Niro had damaged the image of Italians and Italian-Americans by frequently portraying them in criminal roles. Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani dismissed the objections, and the ceremony was rescheduled to go forward in Rome in October.
Controversy flared again when De Niro failed to show for two media appearances in Italy that month, which De Niro blamed on “serious communication problems” that weren’t “handled properly” on his end, stating, “The last thing I would want to do is offend anyone. I love Italy.” The citizenship was conferred on De Niro on October 21, 2006, during the finale of the Rome Film Festival. De Niro is registered in the electoral district of Molise, the Italian homeland of his great-grandparents.
De Niro is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. De Niro publicly supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton. De Niro also narrated 9/11, a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS and centering on video footage made by Jules and Gedeon Naudet that focused on the role of firefighters following the attacks.
While promoting his movie The Good Shepherd with co-star Matt Damon on the December 8, 2006 episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews at George Mason University, De Niro was asked whom he would like to see as President of the United States. De Niro responded, “Well, I think of two people: Hillary Clinton and Obama.” On February 4, 2008, De Niro supported Obama at a rally at the Izod Center in New Jersey before Super Tuesday.
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