After nearly losing half of his $500 million fortune to his ex-wife, it doesn’t seem Robert De Niro is taking any chances. The 81-year-old Oscar winner is rumored to be refusing to marry his 45-year-old girlfriend Tiffany Chen unless she agrees to sign a prenuptial agreement.
De Niro has good reason to stand his ground. His seemingly tough divorce from Grace Hightower dragged on for years, and though the court ultimately upheld their 2004 prenup — ruling that income he earned during the marriage was his separate property — the ordeal cost him millions, according to Fox News. He still pays $1 million a year in alimony and shelled out $6 million toward a new home for Hightower. In a separate issue, he had to make a $1.26 million payout to a former assistant after a gender discrimination lawsuit.
While Chen, who gave birth to De Niro’s seventh child in 2023, reportedly wants to get married, the “Raging Bull” star “wants to avoid marriage like the plague” unless she agrees to his prenup terms, unnamed purported source told The Globe.
De Niro’s stance isn’t unusual. Experts say prenuptial agreements are becoming more common among high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs, according to a 2018 article in Entrepreneur.
Despite going public with Chen long ago, according to The Globe, De Niro isn’t rushing to the alter.
Who Is Tiffany Chen?
Chen and De Niro on the set of the 2015 film “The Intern.” By 2021 they were a couple, and in 2023 they welcomed a daughter named Gia, De Niro’s seventh child. His older children (by various mothers) include Drena, 53; Raphael, 48; twins Julian and Aaron, 29; Elliot, 26; and Helen, 13.
While acting seems to be her source of income, she is best known for being a professional martial artist whose father was a Tai Chi master, Grandmaster William C.C. Chen.
Since the age of 7, she has risen to prominence and won the world Tai Chi championship in 2005. She has more than 40 gold medals.
She got inducted into Inside Kung-Fu magazine’s 2011 Hall of Fame at the age of 26, according to Parade.
She would later star in movies such as “Good Manners” (2010) and the aforementioned The Intern.
Various internet sources incorrectly state her net worth to be more than $300 million. However, these poorly researched blogs confused Tiffany Chen, the Tai Chi master, with a businesswoman vice president of a Hong Kong production company owned by her husband that is responsible for Jet Li’s worldwide appeal.
De Niro’s Tiffany Chen has a net worth that has yet to be estimated, but his was rumored to be about $500 million.
Hightower, on the other hand, whose net worth, was married to De Niro from 1997 and separated in 2018. She is a socialite who met with De Niro at a Mr. Chow restaurant in London, and it was love at first sight, it may seem.
It would be a tumultuous relationship, with Hightower and De Niro filing for divorce in 1999 after the birth of their first child together in 1998.
They would have fought over custody of their son in 2001, but in 2004, they resolved their issues and renewed their vows. The former couple welcomed a second child in 2011, their daughter, via a surrogate.
Hightower’s net worth is estimated at $50 million.
