Actor Robert De Niro, a dad of seven, gets emotional when asked if he was a good father

As a guest on “ Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? ,” actor Robert De Niro was asked how he would describe himself as a father to his seven kids.

At the age of 79, De Niro became a father of seven when he and his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, welcomed a baby girl into the world in April 2023.

In an interview last year with USA Today , De Niro admitted that becoming a father again at 79 “doesn’t get easier. It is what it is. It’s OK.”

In a similar tone, De Niro, now 81, told Wallace that he would describe himself as a father who is doing the best he can.

“I’m trying my best,” he said on the Sept. 13 episode. “I’m going to put on my gravestone, ‘I tried my best.’”

Wallace didn’t leave it at that, and De Niro continued. Admitting he was thinking about his children and his gravestone “the other day,” De Niro said he would also add, “Please forgive me for everything that I’ve done” on the stone as well.

“Were you not a good father?” Wallace questioned the actor.

“No! I tried my best,” De Niro said, admitting his career often left him busy. “That’s all I can say.”

As he got emotional, he added, “I’ll always love my kids.”

De Niro told USA Today that he’s not the one doing “the heavy lifting” when it comes to raising his 1-year-old.

“I’m there, I support my girlfriend,” he said. “But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important.”

While discussing his mortality with The Guardian , De Niro admitted one of his ambitions at this stage of life is to “stay alive.”

“Of course I think about it, at my age,” he said of death. “It’s not going to stop me, but you think about it.”

“You think more about time,” De Niro told the outlet. “Every summer, every new season, everything , you say, ‘Well, I’m going to use these few months of the summer to be with my kids, my family.’ I can’t wait until the next – I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“So each thing becomes more important. Everything I do, time-wise, is important. Whatever I’m thinking about doing in two years, I’d better think about doing it now.”