It’s over! Oscar-winner Robert De Niro and wife Grace Hightower split
Oscar-winner Robert De Niro and his wife Grace Hightower have shocked Hollywood with news of their breakup, weeks after the screen legend was targeted in the mail bomb saga.
Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro and his wife of more than 20 years have separated, according to reports.
De Niro, 75, and Grace Hightower, 63, have been living apart for some time, The Hollywood Reporter, celebrity website TMZ and People magazine said, quoting anonymous sources.
De Niro’s spokesman did not return a request for comment.
The Raging Bull actor and Hightower married in 1997 and have two children.
This is not the first time De Niro and Hightower have broken up. The pair called it quits in 1999, before reuniting and renewing their vows in 2004.
“Sometimes things don’t work out the way you hope or want them to,” a source close to the family told People magazine.
But De Niro, one of America’s most respected actors and winner of two Oscars, has tended to keep his family and his private life out of the spotlight.
It was De Niro’s second marriage - his first, to Diahnne Abbott ended in 1988 after 12 years.
He has six children - one with Abbott (he also adopted her daughter from a previous relationship), two with model Toukie Smith, and two with Hightower.
De Niro made headlines last month when he was among a slew of critics of US President Donald Trump who were sent crude pipe bombs in the mail.
The man charged with mailing the bombs, Cesar Sayoc, has pleaded not guilty to all 30 charges against him in a federal court.
If convicted, Sayoc faces a sentence of life in prison. He had previously faced five counts carrying a maximum prison sentence of 48 years.
Judge Jed Rakoff set Sayoc’s trial date for July 15, 2019. Prosecutors said they expected the government’s case would take three weeks and would include experts in forensics, explosive devices and the chemistry of the explosives in those devices.
Sayoc, a 56-year-old former stripper and pizza delivery driver who lived in a white van festooned with right-wing political images supporting Trump and attacking his critics, was arrested in Florida on October 26 following an intense manhunt. He is being held without bail.
A federal indictment filed earlier this month accused Sayoc of sending improvised explosive devices to five people in New York: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire investor and Democratic donor George Soros, former Central Intelligence Agency directors John Brennan and James Clapper, and De Niro.
Originally published as It’s over! Oscar-winner Robert De Niro and wife Grace Hightower split
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