Robert De Niro’s son becomes latest Hollywood child to ‘transition’ – LifeSite
Mon May 5, 2025 – 1:34 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — Two-time Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro is the latest celebrity with a trans-identifying child. On April 29, Airyn De Niro, formerly named Aaron, told Them magazine that he began to take hormone treatments to “transition” to female in 2024. Airyn had previously come out as gay in high school.
Robert De Niro told People that he is very supportive of his son’s decision. “I loved and supported Aaron as my son, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter,” he said. “I don’t know what the big deal is. I love all my children.” De Niro has seven children with four different women; Airyn has a twin brother.
His son explained to Them that, as a biracial person, his current identity has many influences. “I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me. I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”
Of his parents, Airyn was complimentary. “Obviously, no parent is perfect, but I am grateful that both my parents agreed to keep me out of the limelight. They wanted it very private; they have told me they wanted me to have as much of a normal childhood as possible.”
Now, however, Airyn hopes that going public with his transition will encourage others to do the same. There’s a difference between being visible and being seen I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.” Interestingly, Airyn’s grandfather, Robert De Niro Sr., was privately a gay man, something that Robert De Niro discussed in the 2014 documentary Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.
De Niro’s son is the latest in a wave of trans-identifying Hollywood offspring. To cite just a few examples:
- Seraphina Rose Affleck, the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, identifies as transgender (male).
- Emme Maribel Muniz, Affleck’s step-sister and the daughter of Jennifer Lopez, identifies as “gender-neutral.” Lopez has also previously discussed her transgender relative, her “nibling” Brendon. (“Nibling” is a recently-invented gender-neutral term for niece or nephew.)
- Cynthia Nixon, the actress most famous for Sex and the City, has long boasted about her trans-identifying child; at a recent protest in New York City against President Trump’s executive order targeting sex changes for minors, she went even further. According to Nixon, her daughter is transgender, her niece is transgender, her best friend’s child is transgender, her daughter’s best friend is transgender, and her life is filled with transgender people, “young and old, but especially young.
- Actress Charlize Theron is raising her son Jackson as a girl after he apparently told her he felt female at age three.
- NBA All-Star Dwayne Wade and his actress wife Gabrielle Union are raising his son Zion as a girl and changed his name to “Zaya.”
- Walking Dead actor Khary Payton announced, back in 2020, that his 11-year-old daughter is now “my son Karter.”
- Singer Cher’s daughter came out as transgender in 2009, changed her name to Chaz Bono, and documented her transition in the 2011 documentary Becoming Chaz.
- Jame Lee Curtis’s son came out as transgender in 2021, changing his name to Ruby. Curtis has expressed pride about this, and officiated at his wedding in 2022.
- Actor Marlon Wayans’ child has come out as transgender (he detailed their journey in a number of interviews).
- The daughter of Busy Phillips has used “they/them” pronouns since she was 10.
- Sigourney Weaver’s child identifies as non-binary.
- R. Kelly, the disgraced singer, has a child who has identified as transgender since the age of 13.
- Singer Chester Bennington has a trans-identifying child who began hormone therapy last year.
In short, Robert De Niro’s son has a very supportive community in Hollywood. It is no accident that gender dysphoria has hit Hollywood harder than nearly anywhere else—it is key source of the LGBT movement’s power, and has been at the forefront of nearly every new stage in the LGBT revolution. As I noted in my recent book How We Got Here: A Guide to Our Anti-Christian Culture, Hollywood has worked hard to promote transgenderism—and unsurprisingly, many artists are merely telling the stories of their own (usually broken) families.
Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National Post, National Review, First Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton Spectator, Reformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.
His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.
He is the author of The Culture War, Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion, Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Movement, Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.
Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.
