Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, the grandson of Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, has died, his mother announced on social media.
He was 19.
Actress Drena De Niro, Robert De Niro’s daughter, wrote about the loss of her son in a post on Instagram on Sunday.
“You have been my joy my heart and all that was ever pure and real in my life,” the caption read in part. “I don’t know how to live without you but I’ll try to go on and spread the love and light that you so made me feel in getting to be your mama. You were so deeply loved and appreciated and I wish that love alone could have saved you.”
She tagged her son’s father, artist Carlos Rodriguez, who goes by Carlos Mare, in the post.
“Rest in Peace and Eternal Paradise my darling boy,” she wrote.
“Words aren’t enough to express the joy he gave us or the loss we now endure with our families and friends,” Mare responded in a comment on the post. “He is Godschild now.”
No cause of death was shared.
“It is with immeasurable shock and sadness that we say goodbye to our beloved son Leo,” Drena De Niro said in a statement on Monday. “We thank you for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we are given privacy at this time to process this inconsolable grief.”
“I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo,” Robert De Niro said in a statement to CNN. “We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo.”
Drena De Niro, 51, is the oldest of Robert De Niro’s now seven children (the 79-year-old welcomed a baby earlier this year). The actor adopted her when he married her mother, Diahnne Abbott, his first wife. Drena De Niro is also an actor, with roles in “Joy,” “The Intern” and “Mozart in the Jungle,” among a long list of credits.
Leandro also had acting credits to his name, with roles in three projects also featuring his mother: 2005’s “The Collection,” and 2018’s “Cabaret Maxime” and “A Star Is Born.” In Bradley Cooper’s remake, the mother and son played mother and son — wife and child to Dave Chappelle’s character.
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