Robert De Niro’s Daughter Drena Says Internet Played Role in Son’s Overdose Death

Drena De Niro opened up about what she thinks led to the death of her only son, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez.

Leandro, 19, was found dead in New York City on July 2, 2023, following an accidental drug overdose. His mother, the 58-year-old daughter of Robert De Niro, told Page Six in an interview published on Saturday, Nov. 29, that his internet activity played a role in his death, along with fentanyl and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before he began taking harder drugs, Drena told Page Six, her son “liked to smoke weed, he liked to party and have a good time, but he got messed up so fast that I knew something wasn’t right here, and I knew it had something to do with what he was doing on the internet.”

“There was a change in him that was so fast,” she recalled to the outlet. She did not share any more details about what aspect of Leandro’s internet activity she is referring to, though she did mention TikTok.

Prior to his death, Leandro had been “talking about” going to rehab, she told Page Six. It would have been the second time, as the 19-year-old had had a negative experience with a rehabilitation center before, she added.

“That was very sad to me because he wanted help,” Drena told Page Six. “He knew he was over his head. I don’t think he even knew why. I think he had been exposed to much harder drugs that he didn’t know about.”

Days after her son’s death, Drena — who shared Leandro with former partner Carlos “Mare” Rodriguez — wrote on Instagram that “someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him.”

Nearly two years later, in October, five people were arrested in connection with the death. The New York City Chief Medical Examiner ruled in 2023 that Leandro died from the toxic effects of fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine.

Speaking with Page Six, Drena reacted to the arrests, which she called “really strange” and “so bittersweet because you don’t feel any happier.”

“I’m hoping they do get some justice. If you’re going to sell drugs to young people, it doesn’t matter whether you made it, whether you know or didn’t know, you’re taking a chance,” she said of the arrests. But, she added, “I’m not interested in ruining some 24-year-old’s life.”

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Drena also reflected on her son’s life, his relationship with his famous grandfather Robert, 82, and the moment she learned of his death in the newly published interview. “This detective stood there,” she recalled of the day Leandro was found dead, “and the whole world as I knew it collapsed.”

Describing Leandro to Page Six, Drena said, “He was just an amazing kid, he was so smart.”

“We were extremely close,” she continued, “because really it was the first time in my life that I got to have an identity that had nothing to do with my father, or ‘I’m the this’ of someone else — all of a sudden, you have this relationship in your life with someone who knows the best of you, the worst of you.”

Her actor father “got to have the … experience of just being a grandfather with him,” she said, adding that the 19-year-old was “just this pure soul.”

This year, Drena and Robert launched the Leandro De Niro Rodriguez Foundation to expand “access to care for young people & families impacted by the fentanyl crisis,” according to the organization’s social media page.

Drena told Page Six that she founded the organization, in part, to “help prevent other families from ever having to know this pain.”

“It was really painful and shocking and violating for his story to go so viral, to hear people’s horrible thoughts,” she recalled. “But a part of me was like, ‘He’s not going to be some horrible sound bite. I’m going to make sure you know who this kid is and you’re going to know about all these other parents who are losing their kids.’ ”