Robert De Niro emerged in his native New York on Wednesday after claiming the coronavirus pandemic has diminished his multi-million-dollar earnings, prompting him to halve his estranged wife’s credit card allowance.
Lawyers acting on the 76-year old’s behalf made the claim on Monday during his ongoing court battle with second wife Grace Hightower over the terms of their divorce.
Making his first public appearance since disclosing details of his annual income, De Niro wore a precautionary face mask as he climbed from his car.
Mean Streets: Robert De Niro emerged in his native New York on Wednesday after claiming the coronavirus pandemic has diminished his multi-million-dollar earnings
Dressed in a casual a polo shirt, shorts and cap, the celebrated actor looked relaxed while making his way onto the sidewalk.
De Niro – who has spent the coronavirus lockdown at his upstate New York compound in the village of Gardiner- also revealed a thick, bushy beard beneath his white face covering.
Just two day earlier an emergency hearing was called after De Niro halved Hightower’s monthly American Express credit card limit, cutting it from $100,000 to $50,000.
New York, New York: Dressed in a casual a polo shirt, shorts and cap, the celebrated actor looked relaxed while making his way onto the sidewalk in his home city
The pair confirmed their separation in November 2018 after 21 years together.
Caroline Krauss, De Niro’s attorney, told the judge that De Niro had to reduce her allowance because his businesses and career had suffered since the pandemic hit.
She said his Nobu restaurant and hotel empire – founded in 1994, now with 41 restaurants and 18 hotels in North and South America, Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia – lost $3 million in April and another $1.87 million in May.
Battle: Lawyers acting on the 76-year old’s behalf discussed his finances on Monday during his ongoing court battle with second wife Grace Hightower over the terms of their divorce
On Monday it emerged the chain took 14 loans from the U.S. small business relief program for as much as $28 million, according to government filings.
He also owns The Greenwich hotel, which has been largely empty due to the pandemic.
Krauss said he also had to pay investors $500,000 on a capital call, which he borrowed money from his business partners to make, ‘because he doesn’t have the cash,’ she said, according to The New York Post.
Tough times: The Greenwich hotel, owned by De Niro, has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic
Business venture: De Niro also founded the Nobu restaurant chain with Nobu Matsuhisa 25 years ago
She explained that under the terms of their 2004 prenuptial agreement De Niro is required to pay Hightower $1 million a year as long as he’s making $15 million or more in income, and if his income declines, so do his payments to her.
‘His accounts and business manager says that the best case for Mr De Niro, if everything starts to turn around this year, he is going to be lucky if he makes $7.5 million this year,’ Krauss said.
She said that proceeds from De Niro’s latest film – Netflix’s The Irishman, nominated for 10 Oscars – have mostly already been paid out and he is likely to get just $2.5 million in 2020 and 2021.
Wealthy: De Niro, pictured at the Oscars in February 2020, is worth more than $500 million
And a movie project that De Niro was scheduled to begin filming this summer in Oklahoma has been put on hold, Krauss explained.
She said that ‘these people’ – seemingly a reference to Hightower and their children – placed great financial demands on De Niro, preventing him from retiring.
‘These people, in spite of his robust earnings, have always spent more than he has earned,’ Krauss said, according to the paper.
‘So this 76-year-old robust man couldn’t retire even if he wanted to because he can’t afford to keep up with his lifestyle expense.’
Diminished earnings: It’s understood that proceeds from De Niro’s latest film – Netflix’s The Irishman, nominated for 10 Oscars – have mostly already been paid out and he is likely to get just $2.5 million in 2020 and 2021
She said that De Niro has begun cutting back his own spending ‘dramatically.’
Hightower’s lawyer, Kevin McDonough, said it was laughable to suggest that De Niro had fallen on hard times.
‘The idea that Mr De Niro is tightening his belt is nonsense,’ he said.
‘Mr De Niro has used the COVID pandemic, my words would be, to stick it to his wife financially.
You looking at me? De Niro became an international star after playing troubled Vietnam vet Travis Bickle in 1974 film Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese
Punching: He won the Academy Award for Best Actor following his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Scorsese’s 1980 blockbuster Raging Bull
‘I’m not a believer that a man who has an admitted worth of $500 million and makes $30 million a year, all of a sudden in March he needs to cut down [spousal support] by 50 per cent and ban her from the house.’
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Matthew Cooper issued a temporary ruling that De Niro could keep Hightower’s credit card limit at $50,000 a month.
But he ruled that De Niro should pay her $75,000 so she can find a summer home for their two children, while De Niro and his other children remain in his three-house compound upstate.
‘I am not requiring at this point that Mr De Niro restore the credit card to $100,000,’ Cooper said.
‘$50,000 seems to be certainly enough to avoid irreparable harm.’