Robert De Niro splits from wife Grace Hightower after 21 years of marriage
ROBERT De Niro has split from his wife Grace Hightower after 21 years of marriage, it's reported.
The Goodfellas star is said to have been spotted attending events solo and the pair are no longer living together.
A source said they're expected to announce their breakup publicly in the coming weeks.
One pal told : “They are not living together at this time.”
Social sources have noticed that the Taxi Driver actor has been alone at events he’d usually attend with Hightower over the past months.
One said: “De Niro and Grace are breaking up. He’s been at a few things since the very end of the summer without her — and rumour has it they are done.”
De Niro was at a film benefit on Monday night to honour Martin Scorsese, along with Leo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Harvey Keitel.
The couple married in 1997 after dating for nearly a decade, and they have two young kids together.
But this is not the first time the couple’s split up - De Niro filed for divorce in 1999, two years into their marriage.
They reportedly had a custody battle over their son at the time until they smoothed out their troubles and the divorce did not proceed.
Instead, they then renewed their wedding vows in 2004 at a starry ceremony in front of pals including Scorsese, Meryl Streep and De Niro’s Meet the Parents co-star Ben Stiller.
De Niro met former flight attendant Hightower in 1987 when she was working at famed eatery Mr. Chow in London.
She said of their early relationship in a 2013 New York Times profile: “It was an ease-in. It wasn’t a whirlwind.”
Since then, Hightower’s been a sometimes actress and singer, as well as a philanthropist and entrepreneur who founded the java line Coffee of Grace.
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Oscar winner De Niro’s also an entrepreneur who’s backed Nobu, the Tribeca Grill and the Greenwich Hotel.
He was married once before, to Diahnne Abbott.
A version of this story originally appeared on
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