Actor Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson, Leandro, has died, according to his mother Drena.
The actor’s daughter posted a tribute to her late son on her Instagram page on Sunday. “My beautiful sweet angel,” the 51-year-old filmmaker began. “I have loved you beyond words or description from the moment I felt you in my belly.”
“You have been my joy my heart and all that was ever pure and real in my life,” Drena wrote. “I wish I was with you right now. I wish I was with you. I don’t know how to live without you.”
De Niro’s daughter said she plans to “spread the love and light” going forward because of Leandro’s impact on her life.
“You were so deeply loved and appreciated and I wish that love alone could have saved you. I’m so sorry my baby. Rest in Peace and Eternal Paradise my darling boy,” she concluded. Drena tagged Leandro’s father, sculptor Carlos Mare, in her social media update. She did not provide any details on her son’s cause of death.
De Niro did not post anything publicly about his grandson as of Monday morning.
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Drena is De Niro’s oldest child. The “Meet the Parents” star adopted her in 1976 when he married her mother, Diahnne Abbott, per Page Six. Drena took on the last name De Niro at the time. Abbott and the Oscar winner divorced in 1988.
De Niro, 79, has seven children total, including a newborn daughter. He and girlfriend Tiffany Chen welcomed Gia Virginia Chen De Niro on April 6 of this year.
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“I’m going to have a new one every year,” the actor joked about becoming a father again, saying the experience has reenergized him.
“It feels great, yeah,” he told Hoda Kotb on Today during a June interview.
“I have certain awareness — when you’re older you have awareness of certain things in life, dynamics, everything, family dynamics,” De Niro said. “You can’t avoid learning certain things and how you can deal with those and manage them and this and that, the usual. It’s amazing, but I’m very happy about it.”