Robert De Niro‘s daughter Airyn De Niro has come out as transgender.
The aspiring actress and model came out in a new interview with Them magazine, published April 29, and discussed life as one of the renowned Hollywood actor’s seven kids.
“There’s a difference between being visible and being seen,” Airyn De Niro, 29, told the LGBTQ outlet. “I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.”
Last month, tabloids including the Daily Mail wrote about Airyn’s transition after she was spotted in New York City. The outlet called her “Robert De Niro’s nepo baby son” – a term describing the children of stars who benefit from their parents’ fame – despite her largely being out of the spotlight. And none of the outlets, she said, reached out to her before publishing their articles.
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“Not only did they get information wrong about me… They just sort of reminded me that people really don’t know anything about me,” she said.
De Niro shares twins Airyn De Niro and Julian De Niro with model Toukie Smith. The pair dated from 1988 to 1996.
Airyn De Niro told the outlet she has been femme-presenting – or outwardly expressing a feminine gender identity through clothing, hairstyles and/or behaviors – since middle school, but decided to begin hormone therapy in November because she wanted to maintain her femininity as she got older, calling herself a “late bloomer.”
Though Airyn De Niro doesn’t address how her family has reacted to her transition, she expressed anxiety over it. “I think part of me is concerned that (my family) will maybe still think of me as the person I was before the transition,” she told Them.
She is studying to become a mental health counselor, and has also spent the last several years pursuing a modeling and acting career, she told the outlet. She points out that she hasn’t leaned on her father’s connections for opportunities, including auditions for roles in the video game “League of Legends” and as Jules in “Euphoria,” where she was rejected for actress Hunter Schafer.
“I wasn’t brought up having a side part in one of dad’s movies or going to business meetings or attending premieres. My dad was very big on us finding our own sort of path,” Airyn De Niro said. “I would want (success) to happen on my own merit.”
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Now starting to emerge in the public eye, she wants people to see her as “someone who is trying their hardest to heal from growing up not feeling good about themselves.”
“I’d want to hopefully be an inspiration for at least one other person like me who is Black, who is queer, who’s not a size extra small,” she said. “(I want to) make other people feel good about themselves.”
Robert De Niro kids
Robert De Niro shares son Raphael and adopted daughter Drena with actress Diahnne Abbott; twins Airyn and Julian with model Toukie Smith; son Elliot and daughter Helen with actress Grace Hightower; and daughter Gia with Tiffany Chen.
