We don’t know the details about Robert De Niro’s divorce from his wife of twenty years, Grace Hightower, but one thing seems pretty obvious. For some reason, Hightower really seems intent on making De Niro suffer during the divorce process.
De Niro has always had a reputation as a very private guy, usually preferring to keep his personal life away from the public eye. Heck, he even filed his divorce papers as “Anonymous vs. Anonymous.”
But even that move didn’t prove sufficient at trying to keep his divorce quiet since, apparently, it’s Hightower who wants the proceedings aired out in public. De Niro evidently would have preferred to avoid having to appear in court, but ended up having to show up last week and was forced to face an onslaught of reporters and paparazzi outside the courthouse.
According to a source from Page Six:
“Bob would have preferred to not go to court, and she [Hightower]would do better by not going to court, but she forcing Bob to give her less money.”
A significant aspect of the divorce proceedings will be the custody arrangements of De Niro’s and Hightower’s children; a seven-year-old daughter, and a twenty-year-old son who has autism.
Again, we’re not sure what the details of the divorce are, but there has been speculation that it boils down to money. Specifically, that Hightower has been spending De Niro’s money like there’s no tomorrow, while De Niro is forced to take on crappy movies just to pay the bills (Dirty Grandpa, anyone?).
Honestly, this whole drawn-out divorce battle makes me feel bad for De Niro. He seems like a pretty decent, stand-up guy as far as I can tell, and doesn’t deserve to be dragged into court through a ravenous mob of rabid paparazzi. I hope he’s able to get through this with everything he wants (i.e., a suitable custody arrangement with his children). And if it’s true that the divorce does have to do with his ex-wife’s overspending, then he’ll at least be able to go back to choosing his films he wants to do rather than the ones he has to do. Because at 75-years-old, and with an illustrious career behind him, De Niro deserves that much.
Wow. This is really one-sided reporting.