During his heyday, Robert De Niro was described as handsome, mysterious, alluring, and a complete
womanizer. Robert pursued, chased down, and broke the hearts of several women during his youth,
and even tried to win over Whitney Huston herself. His romantic past is riddled with scandal.
During the 1960s, De Niro put all his focus on acting.
Well, not all of his focus. Any of the attention he had left went straight to woo-ing
any women he would find interesting. Film producer Jonathan Taplin once
confessed that "He picked these incredibly strong girls. He'd fight with them all the
time. They would always be in tears the next morning and he would buy them some perfume."
It was also alleged that the award-winning actor garnered a few insecurities that often
caused a lot of problems with the women that he dated. If Robert believed his girlfriend
was getting too much attention from another man, he would unleash his jealous and possessive side.
While on the set of the film Taxi Driver in 1976, he met actress Diahnne Abbott and was
immediately smitten. The couple didn't wait very long to take their relationship to the next level,
and they were married within the year. Diahnne soon gave birth to their son,
Raphael, while Robert also adopted Diahnne's daughter Drena from a previous relationship.
To the public, it seemed as though the actor had put his womanizing days behind him.
He was now a husband and a father of two. Unfortunately, behind closed doors,
this could not have been further from the truth.
It was alleged that De Niro was involved with other women throughout his marriage.
He also spent a lot of time partying with his famous friends and spent little time at
home with his wife. Sources stated that Diahnne spent most of her time in their marital home,
while Robert split his time between New York and California.
When he was at home with Diahnne, it seemed as though their relationship held a lot of tension.
One evening, the De Niros invited the New York Times into their home in Bel Air for
a dinner party. The journalist noted that Diahnne was a statuesque beauty,
the perfect hostess who had prepared a buffet-style dinner for everyone.
Robert, on the other hand, reportedly sat in silence for most of the night,
his eyes never leaving Diahnne. It was almost as if he was waiting for her to make a wrong move.
A close friend shared to the newspaper, "Bob is very Italian with Diahnne,
very possessive and jealous."
Kathi McGinnis , Robert's New York, New York co-star,
added, "I think he's hiding something he thinks may be too weird. I mean he's protecting himself
with all that silence. There's some part of him he can't show because he's afraid it's insane."
Perhaps it was his secretive adulterous lifestyle he so desperately wanted to keep
a secret from the rest of the world? If that was the case, he didn't do a very good job at it.
One sunny day in Los Angeles, during the 1980s, Robert was driving his convertible when he saw
a beautiful woman in the car next to him. Her name was Helena Springs , an aspiring singer.
The actor had to find some way to grab her attention, so he started following her car.
Naturally, Helena was not impressed.
"I'd go fast, he'd go fast. I'd slow down,
he'd slow down. This asshole kept following me. I didn't even know him." The singer confessed.
Finally, Robert put his hands in a praying position and said,
"Pull over." So she did, and he invited her to lunch.
It was alleged that they went out to eat, and — despite the fact that the actor was still
married to Diahnne — he and Helena hooked up that same day. What resulted was an adulterous affair.
It seemed that the pair couldn't get enough of each other. However, when Helena found out she was
pregnant, she reportedly terminated the pregnancy without Robert knowing anything about it.
The singer fell pregnant a second time in late 1981. This time, she decided to keep
the baby. When she told Robert about her plans, he reportedly flew into a wild rage.
Helena claimed the actor began to verbally and physically threaten her
in an attempt to pressure her to terminate the pregnancy, but Helena didn't back down.
She later went on to give birth to a baby girl named Nina in 1982.
Robert reportedly gave her $50,000 to help with the baby and even assisted her in setting up
the nursery. Believe it or not, even after the scandal of an adulterous love child,
De Niro and Diahnne still remained together.
They even appeared in a few more movies together. But in 1987, he became fixated on someone else.
During a visit to Mr. Chow restaurant in London, he met a waitress by the name of Grace Hightower).
Grace had always been hesitant to dish out any details on what happened between them
when they first met. Perhaps it was because she knew that he was married. However,
she did choose to share, "It was an ease-in. It wasn't a whirlwind."
Grace told the New York Daily News she had no clue who he was and was getting frustrated
because he kept asking her so many questions about the restaurant's tables and the menus.
After complaining to one of her co-workers about the annoying customer who was pestering her,
the co-worker told her the annoying customer was a very famous actor. This changed things for Grace,
and it's assumed they exchanged their contact information to keep in touch.
Robert and Diahnne eventually separated sometime around 1987,
but what may surprise you is that their split had nothing to do with infidelity. A source close to
the former couple shared that Diahnne wanted to live the celebrity lifestyle in the spotlight,
and Robert didn't. He had always wanted to keep his life out of the tabloids as much as possible.
So, they agreed to part ways, although they remained legally married.
In the meantime, the actor didn't make any effort to slow down his playboy ways.
Grace was in London, and their causal relationship continued.
However, there were rumors he had his eyes on yet another woman.
Legendary singer Whitney Houston had caught his eye, and the actor did his best to pull out all
the cards he had to win her over. He sent her flowers and even diamond earrings. However,
Whitney's parents and record executive Clive Davis urged her to ignore Robert's advances
because they believed it would ruin her career.
Whitney's rejection did nothing to stop the actor in his tracks.
He simply moved on to the next woman who caught his eye. He began dating actress
Toukie Smith while he was still legally married to Diahnne. - Not that being married had stopped him
before - He and Toukie dated for many years and eventually welcomed twin boys Aaron and Julian.
Robert went on to have flings with models Veronica Webb and Naomi Campbell),
who was just 21 at the time. Naomi even reportedly declared that then,
48-year-old Robert was her man during an interview.
When the New York Times questioned Toukie about Robert and Naomi's relationship, Toukie insisted
that everything regarding her private life was going to remain just that - private.
And just when you thought that juggling all these women at once was enough,
think again. In 1992, his ex-lover Helena Springs - remember her? She was the one he
chased down with his car - popped back into the picture. She demanded that Robert pay
even more child support for their daughter, who was then ten years old.
Robert finally agreed to finally submit a blood test,
and the results concluded that after all these years, he was, in fact, not the father of Nina.
Helena clapped back by telling the court Robert still owed her money
because he told her daughter that he was her father. The court didn't give in to her,
and Robert cut off all financial assistance after the paternity test results were revealed.
After his relationships with both Toukie and Naomi fizzled out in the mid-1990s,
it seemed as though the actor was back on the market. However, that didn't last very
long. De Niro decided to take things with his London-lover, Grace Hightower, to the next level.
The two married at their hometown in New York in 1997 during a very intimate ceremony that
hosted only eleven people. That fall, it was revealed that the newlyweds were pregnant with
their first child together, and in March 1998, they welcomed their son, Elliot.
Shockingly, it was only a year after their son
was born that De Niro filed for divorce from Hightower.
"Bobby was just not working hard enough at his marriage to Grace,"
A close friend of De Niro said at the time.
They did their best to amicably co-parent Elliot for more than a year
until 2001 when a custody battle suddenly blew up out of nowhere.
Grace accused Robert of getting intimate with another woman on a family yacht trip,
although it was later alleged that the woman, quote, "was helping him open and close the door
to the bathroom”. She also accused him of heavy drinking and drug use, which De Niro denied.
He alleged Hightower had a violent temper. But the couple never went through with the divorce.
Despite all the scandalous accusations, they called off the divorced and renewed
their vows in 2004 during a ceremony in upstate New York.
In December 2011, 67-year-old Robert and 56-year-old Grace welcomed their second child,
a baby girl named Helen, who was conceived via surrogate.
Robert was officially the father of six children by three different women.
As the 21 years of their marriage went by, things seemed to fizzle out between the couple,
and they were last seen together publicly on the red carpet in June
of 2018 when they attended the 72nd Annual Tony Awards in New York City.
Just five months later, a family source confirmed that the two had separated and filed
for divorce. Unfortunately, even though their divorce was filed three and a half years ago,
their court battle over finances and custody over their kids is still ongoing.
An insider source shared, "This could be resolved very privately and quietly behind closed doors,"
but Grace is aiming to "drag this out."
There's no doubt that Rober's love life seems to resemble that of a soap opera.
The number of women he left with broken hearts is quite shocking, and fans can't
help but wonder how his playboy behavior didn't burn his reputation to the ground. We just hope
that his divorce with Grace finally comes to an agreeable end, and he can finally move on.