NEED TO KNOW
Robert De Niro’s daughter Airyn is opening up about his support after she came out as transgender.
“The support has still been nonstop from him, and I’m so grateful,” the 30-year-old told Them in a follow-up interview to the publication’s April interview.
“He was talking about how happy he was for me,” Airyn said of Robert, 82, “because I have an amazing boyfriend who he’s met, and [he said], ‘You have somebody who loves you for you, and you don’t need to change yourself for anybody.’”
Recently the father-daughter duo were in a therapy session, discussing her transition. “He said, ‘There’s no other thing to do than accept your kid for who they are and where they decide to go in life,’” recalled Airyn. “He’s very good at being a dad and, not just that, [but also] accepting people from all walks of life.”
Airyn De Niro/Instagram; Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty
She added that at the two-time Oscar winner’s “ripe old age, he’s not even setting a high bar. It’s just like, that should be the standard.”
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Airyn’s mother, actress Toukie Smith, shares her and twin brother Julian with Robert. The Killers of the Flower Moon star has seven kids total; his youngest is Gia, whom he welcomed with girlfriend Tiffany Chen in April 2023.
Robert told PEOPLE in a statement in June that he “loved and supported” Airyn before her transition, “and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter.”
He added at the time, “I don’t know what the big deal is… I love all my children.”
Speaking to Them about embracing her inner Goth just in time for Halloween, Airyn said it feels “very healing” to “experience worlds, communities, aesthetics, and fashions in a body that you’ve always wanted to be in but weren’t before.”
She also discussed her relationship with singing, saying, “the only people that have heard me sing are my mom, my dad, my sister and Ariana Grande.”
After meeting years ago, the pop superstar recently reconnected with Airyn amid filming Focker-in-Law with Robert and Ben Stiller. “I sent her a little clip of me singing, and she was so kind about it,” revealed Airyn. “She really gave me a confidence boost.”
Airyn De Niro/Instagram
Robert returns to the Meet the Parents franchise with Focker-in-Law, in theaters Nov. 25, 2026.
