Robert De Niro Opens Up About Being A White Dad To 6 Biracial Children

Robert De Niro opens up about his fatherhood experience as a white dad to six biracial children.

“The Irishman” star has six children who are in his own words “half black.” He shares daughter Drena, 48, and son, Raphael, 44, with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott. He also has twin sons Julian and Aaron, 24, with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith and two more children Eliott, 22, and Helen, 8, with his second ex-wife Grace Hightower.

“My children are all half black and I don’t have … even me, I take certain things for granted,” De Niro said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday (June 10), per Us Weekly.

“When people say that they tell their kids, ‘Keep your hands [up] when you’re stopped by any cops, keep your hands on the steering wheel, don’t make a sudden move, don’t put your hands below, don’t do this,’ you understand that. That’s scary. That has to change.”

In April 2019, De Niro also opened up about his children and the different challenges he faced as a dad. The actor expressed love for his kids and even joked about their relationship.

“I love my children, just being with them,” the Oscar winner told Us Weekly at the Tribeca Film Festival.

“It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s fun and you love your kids, and sometimes you want to kill them! Then, when you have the good moments, you forget about the ones that weren’t good.”

De Niro also opened up about his gay father, Robert De Niro Sr., in previous interviews. The actor’s dad was a painter and he was not close to him because his parents were divorced when he was still a kid and he grew up with his mom. However, De Niro said he had a connection with his father when the latter was still alive.

“We were not the type of father and son who played baseball together, as you can surmise. But we had a connection,” De Niro said.

“I wasn't with him a lot, because my mother and he were separated and divorced. ... But my father wasn't a bad father, or absent. He was absent in some ways. He was very loving. He adored me ... as I do my kids.”