Robert De Niro is one of the most celebrated actors in cinema history. He is also, by his own admission, a man who cannot afford to stop working. Despite an estimated net worth of $500 million as per Celebrity Net Worth, De Niro found himself in a difficult financial position in the late 2010s after an ugly divorce and the hard times continued as the 2020s ushered in the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reasons are not mysterious. The combination of a costly divorce, a hospitality empire battered by a pandemic, properties that were accumulating ongoing costs and a lifestyle that has consistently outpaced even his considerable income took a clear toll on the actor.
The most revealing moment came in 2021 during court proceedings from his own lawyer. As per Fox Business, Caroline Krauss stated plainly: “These people, in spite of his robust earnings, have always spent more than he has earned – 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.”
A divorce that cost more than most people earn in a lifetime
De Niro’s separation from Grace Hightower in 2018, after an on-and-off marriage dating back to 1997, became one of the more financially consequential celebrity splits in recent memory.
According to McAlister Family Law, their 2004 prenuptial agreement stipulated that De Niro owed Hightower $1 million per year as long as his annual earnings exceeded $15 million – with payments scaling down proportionally if his income fell below that threshold.
Hightower had been spending up to $375,000 per month, and when De Niro moved to cut her American Express limit from $100,000 to $50,000 a month, she took him to court as per the same report.
What emerged from the proceedings was a candid picture of his finances. According to court filings, De Niro admitted to substantial unpaid tax debt, which he planned to settle from the proceeds of his next two films.
Nobu, Greenwich Hotel, and the pandemic wipeout
A significant portion of De Niro’s wealth has always been tied not to investments or diversified assets but to the hospitality industry – specifically his stakes in the Nobu restaurant chain and the Greenwich Hotel in New York.
When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, those assets became liabilities almost overnight. According to Fox Business, Nobu lost $3 million in April 2020 alone and a further $1.87 million in May. De Niro was also required to make a $500,000 capital call payout to investors – money his lawyer confirmed he had to borrow from business partners because, as she put it, “he doesn’t have the cash.”
As per The Wealth Advisor, the deeper problem was structural. Most of De Niro’s money was locked in New York real estate and hospitality assets – holdings that generate strong returns in good times but cannot be easily liquidated when cash flow dries up. Unlike a diversified portfolio, these assets kept accumulating costs regardless of whether they were generating revenue.
Taking up roles at a ‘prodigious pace’
The cumulative effect of all of this has been a late-career trajectory that De Niro himself has not hidden, with his legal team even arguing that he was picking up work at a ‘prodigious pace’. As per Finance Monthly, this pace has surprised even his peers – the actor signed on to projects not because the scripts excited him, but because the bills kept arriving.
In 2026, the actor’s financial crunch has likely stabilised due to starring roles in prestigious and incredibly successful movies and series like Killers of The Flower Moon (2023) Netflix’s Zero Day (2025) The Alto Knights (2025) and upcoming projects this year like The Whisper Man and Focker In-Law. The hard times seem to have passed.
However, the image of one of cinema’s greatest actors borrowing money to make an investor payment – while simultaneously filming projects he considers beneath him – is still a sobering realization of how even extraordinary wealth can be quietly hollowed out.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available reports and media coverage. It does not claim to independently verify the personal finances, legal matters, or lifestyle choices of Robert De Niro. The content is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as a statement of fact or financial advice.