Hollywood icon Robert De Niro turned heads at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, May 13—not just for his storied film career, but for the spotlight-stealing attention surrounding the 36-year age gap between him and his girlfriend.

The 81-year-old actor, who was being honored with the coveted Honorary Palme d’Or award for lifetime achievement, arrived hand-in-hand with Tiffany Chen, a 45-year-old martial arts professional.

Robert De Niro and his new partner Tiffany Chen made an appearance in Cannes during the Palais des Festival. (Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The couple made a rare appearance at the Palais des Festival’s photo call, with De Niro in a dark-gray suit jacket and Chen in a strapless white dress with a cream cardigan. With her dark hair pulled back, Chen stood confidently beside the legendary actor as they posed for photographs on the opening day of the festival.

“I have such close feelings for Festival de Cannes,” De Niro said in a statement, according to Variety.

“Especially now when there’s so much in the world pulling us apart, Cannes brings us together — storytellers, filmmakers, fans, and friends. It’s like coming home,” his statement added.

He wore a black tux while Chen sported a black sparkly gown with her hair pulled back into a ponytail during the festival’s opening ceremony, where his longtime friend Leonardo DiCaprio presented him with the prestigious award.

The two co-starred in the 1993 film “This Boy’s Life,” and reunited again for “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 2023.

But online, many only talked about the significant age difference between De Niro and Chen, igniting a flurry of commentary on social media. Daily Mail readers weighed in with mixed views.

“She’s old enough to be his daughter… Totally gross,” wrote one commenter, while another replied, “you better make it a granddaughter!”

Some observers focused on Chen’s appearance rather than the age gap, with one person remarking, “The oldest looking 45 year old.”

Meanwhile, others took a more celebratory, if crude, approach to De Niro’s late-in-life fatherhood, with one X user tweeting, “That a boy Bobby.. pump babies in her.”

De Niro and Chen’s relationship began after they met on the set of his 2015 film “The Intern.”

The pair first sparked romance rumors when spotted holding hands during a vacation in France in 2021. Their relationship reached a milestone in April 2023 when they welcomed their daughter, Gia, making De Niro one of Hollywood’s oldest new fathers at 80.

The couple brought their little one out to Cannes, where she delighted many of their friends.

In a February 2025 appearance on BBC Radio 2, the “Goodfellas” star revealed how fatherhood has transformed his entertainment habits. Rather than catching up on Oscar contenders, he now finds himself immersed in children’s programming like “The Wiggles” and “Ms. Rachel.”

“I didn’t know of them until I started seeing them, and my daughter loves to watch them,” he shared. “They’re great…They have a lot of energy.”

Earlier in January 2023, De Niro spoke candidly to AARP The Magazine about his experience as an octogenarian father.

“I’m an 80-year-old dad, and it’s great,” he said about his baby with Chen. “Everything that I’m consumed with or worried about just goes away when I look at [Gia]. So that in itself is, you know, wondrous.”

Gia joins De Niro’s six older children — Drena, 53, Raphael, 48, twins Julian and Aaron, 29, Elliot, 26, and Helen, 13 — all of whom are biracial, born to his previous partners Diahnne Abbott, Toukie Smith, and Grace Hightower. During a 2020 appearance on “The Tonight Show,” De Niro acknowledged his privilege in raising biracial children amid that summer’s racial reckoning.

“My children are all half Black, and I don’t have, even me, I take certain things for granted,” De Niro admitted. “When people say that they tell their kids, ‘Keep your hands [out] when you’re stopped by any cops, keep your hands on the steering wheel, don’t make a sudden move,’ you understand that. That’s scary. That has to change.”

Recent reports claim that the actor’s family dynamics have grown complicated by inheritance plans that allegedly favor his youngest children, particularly Gia. Despite family drama and public scrutiny, De Niro continues to thrive professionally, with his recent appearance in Netflix’s “Zero Day” and six more projects reportedly in development.

The 78th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 12 through May 24, with De Niro’s award ceremony marking just the beginning of the prestigious event’s celebrations.

‘She’s Old Enough to Be His Daughter’: Robert De Niro, 81, Turns Heads In Cannes as Trolls Zoom In on His Longtime Girlfriend