Robert De Niro has become a father again at the age of 79, the Raging Bull actor said in a recent interview.

Double-Oscar winner De Niro corrected an interviewer who suggested he only had six children, telling her it is now “seven, actually”.

“I just had a baby,” he told ET Canada, without revealing the baby’s gender or the identity of the mother.

De Niro’s publicist confirmed the news to AFP.

The almost-octogenarian already shares two children with his first wife, Taxi Driver co-star Diahnne Abbott, and two more with socialite Grace Hightower, from whom he separated in 2018.

He also had twin sons with model Toukie Smith, whom he dated in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

De Niro is currently promoting his new comedy film About My Father, which will be released in US theatres May 26.

Regularly voted among the greatest actors of his generation, De Niro won two Academy Awards before he was 40.

De Niro scored his first Oscar, for best supporting actor, in 1974’s The Godfather Part II, followed by another in 1981 for his leading actor role as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.

In his later career he has found popular, if not always critical, success with family-friendly comedies, including Meet the Parents with Ben Stiller, and The Big Wedding with Diane Keaton.

Other Hollywood and entertainment stars who became fathers again later in life include George Lucas, at 69, and Charlie Chaplin and Mick Jagger – both at 73.