Robert De Niro’s daughter describes holding son for last time a day after Leandro was found dead
Robert De Niro’s daughter has described holding her son Leandro for the final time in a heartbreaking Instagram post shared the day after he died.
Writing on Monday, Drena De Niro, 51, said she held her 18-year-old son ‘for the last time’ at a funeral home, saying: ‘my heart is broken forever’.
The teenager’s lifeless body was found sitting in a chair beside white powder inside a $950,000, one-bedroom apartment in the Cipriani Club Residences on Wall Street, New York, on Sunday, and a cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
His mother – an American actress adopted by De Niro after the actor married her mother, Diahnne Abbott in 1976 – announced his death on Monday, saying: ‘I wish that love alone could have saved you’.
She later added a close-up monochrome photograph of Leandro laughing, thanking friends and family members who had offered support in the wake of his unexpected death.
‘I can barely type through my tears but all the love, the messages, calls, texts, emails, the friends and family that held me up these last 24 hrs I’ve not been able to respond yet but we’re grateful for the all your love and condolences,’ she said.
‘None of this is right or fair and my heart hurts in a way I never knew possible while still breathing and barely functioning.
‘Leo my darling I love you today like the first day I held you in my arms.’
The grieving mother added that she was taken to the funeral home where she ‘touched and held’ her son for the final time, by the same driver who picked them up from the hospital when he was born.
‘You were kindness acceptance and love and I can’t believe any of this is real YOU made everything bearable and every burden lighter,’ she added.
‘You didn’t deserve to die like this but I can only believe that God needed a strong powerful angel in their army.
‘I’m holding you every second of every moment in my heart and memories until I’m with you again. My heart is broken forever.
‘Me daddy and your family love you , I love I love you with every beat of my crying heart.’
She also shared a series of photographs of Leandro with her 27.5k followers on her Instagram Story, including some of him as a younger child.
Leandro’s father, artist Carlos Rodriguez, posted a black square on Instagram on the day of his son’s death.
Rodriguez has been quieter in the wake of the tragedy, but he too recently shared a reel showing photographs of Leandro and their family, featuring the song Blessings by Hollow Coves.
He shared the reel alongside the caption: ‘Thank you for your messages of support.
‘Drena De Niro and our families are grateful. You can’t spell love without Leo.’
Robert De Niro also released a statement about his grandson’s death, saying he was ‘deeply distressed’ and appreciated the condolences which had poured in for his family.
‘I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo,’ he said.
‘We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo.’
Aspiring actor and director Leandro was following in his mother and grandfather’s career footsteps, landing small roles in 2018’s A Star Is Born and Cabaret Maxime and 2005’s The Collection.