Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have both been chastised for having children later in life.
This week, it was revealed that the Scarfac star’s 29-year-old partner is expecting their fourth child, which will be Pacino’s fourth.
De Niro had his seventh child this month and revealed the news during an interview for his upcoming film.
Pacino is 83 years old, and his newborn will be 18 when he is 101.
De Niro is 79 years old and will be 97 when his child reaches the adult age of 18.
Journalist Jaci Stephen chastised the actors for having children in their 80s and 70s.
She has labeled them ‘selfish’ and ‘scary’ for continuing to reproduce.
Compared to the gushing celebrations from De Niro’s celebrity pals, she found the whole thing quite creepy—and not a little bit sad, she wrote in an op-ed.
And that’s precisely the hard reality for geriatric dads like De Niro, and now Pacino: they’ll hardly live long enough to be recognized by their new babies. Thinking about Robert and Al getting down to business is like picturing Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show naked, she continued. It’s just incorrect.
It’s also pretty sad because it exposes an extremely unpleasant hypocrisy when it comes to the reception of women who became mothers in their later years.
The interviewer also cited a remark from Pacino in which he bemoaned his father leaving him when he was just two years old.
Back in 2014, the actor told The New Yorker magazine that he wished he had grown up with his father.
It’s the missing link, he said. Having kids has been really beneficial. He was aware that he did not want to be like his father and really desired to be there.
Pacino and De Niro aren’t the only famous fathers to have children at a later age.
People were taken aback when former Formula One president Bernie Ecclestone revealed he was expecting his fourth child at the age of 89.
Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones’ frontman, welcomed his eighth child at the age of 73.
According to Jaci Stephen’s article, the hard truth for geriatric dads like De Niro and now Pacino is that they’ll hardly live long enough to be known by their new babies.
