DE NIRO ‘FORCED TO WORK’ TO PAY ALIMONY

Robert De Niro is being forced to act in films to pay for his estranged wife’s expensive tastes, the actor’s lawyer has claimed.

Caroline Krauss told a Manhattan court that De Niro is struggling financially because of the pandemic, a large tax bill and the demands of Grace Hightower, who filed for divorce in 2018 after 21 years of marriage.

The court has been asked to settle how much De Niro should pay Hightower, 66, until the terms of the prenuptial agreement the couple negotiated in 2004 takes effect. “Mr. De Niro is 77 years old, and while he loves his craft, he should not be forced to work at this prodigious pace because he has to,” Krauss said.

“When does that stop? When does he get the opportunity to not take every project that comes along and not work six-day weeks, 12-hour days so he can keep pace with Ms. Hightower’s thirst for Stella Mccartney?”

“He could get sick tomorrow, and the party’s over,” she added. According to the New York Post, Krauss accused Hightower of spending vast amounts of money, including buying a diamond worth US$1.2 million from New York jeweller Kwiat.

But Hightower’s lawyer, Kevin Mcdonough, accused the actor of slashing his monthly payments from US$375,000 to US$100,000.

Denying that De Niro was struggling financially, Mcdonough told the court the actor was legally obliged to maintain Hightower, with whom he had had two children, in the lifestyle she enjoyed while they were married. “There have been no cutbacks and no slowdowns in Mr. De Niro’s lifestyle whatsoever,” he added.

With De Niro also facing a US$6.4 million tax bill, the actor has not had the option of being discriminating when being offered roles.