Meet Robert De Niro’s forgotten first wife who supported him through his biggest 1970s movies

Robert and Diahnne first met in 1975 when they were working together on Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. The film was Diahnne's first credited acting role. The pair began an off-screen relationship and they married the following year.

The couple starred in several films together including New York, New York and the King of Comedy.

The same year that they married, Robert and Diahnne welcomed their first child together, a son called Raphael Eugene. At the same time, the actor also adopted Diahnne's daughter, Drena, from a previous relationship.

Singer Helena Springs previously claimed that she met Robert in 1979 and that they began an affair that lasted until 1982. The alleged infidelity put a strain on the actor's marriage to Diahnne, along with his increasingly successful Hollywood career, and the couple split in 1988.

Diahnne stepped back from acting around the same time as her divorce, but made a return to screens in 2000, when she starred in Before Night Falls. She is no longer in the public eye. 

Following their split, Robert has gone on to have five more children with different women. He first got into a relationship with model Toukie Smith, with whom he had twins Julian and Airyn. He married Grace Hightower in 1997, and they welcomed son Elliot in 1998, while their daughter Helen was delivered via surrogate in December 2011. 

They split in 2018 and Robert is now in a relationship with Tiffany Chen, with whom he shares his three-year-old daughter Gia.