“Love and support Airyn as my daughter” - Robert De Niro reacts to daughter Airyn De Niro coming out as trans

Academy Award winner, Robert De Niro, is the father of twins, Airyn and Julian Henry De Niro, with his ex-partner Toukie Smith. Recently, Airyn De Niro came out publicly as a transgender woman. The American actor shared support for his kid.

In a statement shared with Deadline, he explained,

“I loved and supported Aaron as my son and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter.”

Airyn's acceptance by Robert De Niro

Airyn, born in 1995, has mostly been out of the spotlight as Robert De Niro and Toukie wanted Airyn to lead a normal childhood as much as possible. In an interview with her, Airyn expressed being ridiculed by peers for being feminine and bigger-bodied. She also mentioned feeling hypervisible during the coming-of-age phase, even after receiving support from her parents.

“I always grew up a bigger-bodied person, everybody else in the family [was] relatively thin or fit; I was not, so I sort of stood out like a sore thumb and there wasn’t anybody in my family that could relate to that experience.”

shared Airyn. Later, Airyn expressed how coming out as a gay man in high school added extra pressure to fit into Eurocentric beauty standards.

“[Gay men were] ruthless and mean. I didn’t even fit that beauty standard, which is thin, white, muscular, or just super fit, masculine, I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something growing up: Too big, not skinny enough. Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘You’re just right, just the way you are'."

Airyn decided to begin hormone therapy last November. The decision was made after seeing other transgender women share their successful transition stories.

“Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it's not too late for me, maybe I can start.”

She also expressed the desire to be more like Toukie Smith.

“Whenever I’m at a family gathering on my dad’s side, people would always talk about how much they love my mom and how memorable she was and how happy my dad was when he was with her, I want to be like that… I want to be remembered the way that people remember her.”

Meet Robert De Niro’s Children: A Look at the Actor’s Family

Robert De Niro is a father to seven children. He shares two kids each with Diahnne Abott, Toukie Smith, and Grace Hightower. Raging Bull actor also shares one kid with Tiffany Chen.

When Robert married Abott in 1976, he adopted the actress’s daughter, Drena, from her previous relationship. Drena worked as a model, DJ, and also followed her stepdad’s footsteps into acting.

In November 1976, just seven months after tying the knot, Robert and Abbott welcomed a son, Raphael. Years later, Raphael married Claudine De Matos, a fellow broker, in 2008. The couple had three children before separating in 2015.

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Julian De Niro, son of Robert De Niro and Toukie Smith, enrolled at New York University with a focus on science and math and stepped into the acting world. He appeared in In Dubious Battle (2016), sharing the screen with James Franco and Selena Gomez. More recently, in 2022, he portrayed a young Barack Obama in Showtime’s drama The First Lady.

Robert De Niro shares two children with Grace Hightower: Elliot, born in 1998, and Helen Grace, born via surrogate in 2011. The couple married in 1997, briefly separated, then renewed their vows in 2004 before beginning divorce proceedings again in 2018. In 2016, De Niro shared that Elliot is autistic.

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