Robert De Niro’s late grandson, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, checked into Cipriani Wall Street’s residential space last month, a doorman told the Us.Mistertruth.
Brian Fernandes, a doorman for Cipriani’s ballroom the past eight years, says he last saw the teenager on Friday and did not know he had died.
“He came in with his baggage. He was renting out a place here,” Fernandes said.
“He was a nice chap. I always said hello to him and he responded nicely. He used to often sit on the front stairs of Cipriani.”
Police said they found a male teenager dead Sunday at the address associated with Cipriani in Lower Manhattan. They did not identify him but said he was 18. Reports say Leandro was 19.
Leandro’s mother, actress Drena De Niro, announced his death this week. A cause of death is pending further study after an initial examination Monday, the medical examiner’s office said. However, in a social media comment on Wednesday, Drena De Niro appeared to believe the death was caused by fentanyl poisonin
“Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him so for all people still f—-g around selling and buying shit s–t, my son is gone forever,” she wrote in a comment captured by TMZ.
Fernandes says he did not know Leandro was related to Robert De Niro, a two-time Oscar winner for “The Godfather Part II” and “Raging Bull.”
“He was not a conversationalist,” the doorman told The News of Leandro. “Not a talker. He used to be in his own world.”
Leandro was an actor like his mother and grandfather and had appeared in three movies, including 2018′s “A Star Is Born.” In an emotional Instagram tribute Monday, Drena wrote her “heart is broken forever.”
“None of this is right or fair, and my heart hurts in a way I never knew possible while still breathing and barely functioning,” Drena, 51, wrote. “Leo my darling I love you today like the first day I held you in my arms. … You didn’t deserve to die like this but I can only believe that God needed a strong powerful angel in their army.”
Drena is the eldest child of De Niro, who adopted her with his then-wife Diahnne Abbott in 1976. In April, De Niro welcomed his seventh child, a daughter named Virginia Chen-De Niro, with girlfriend Tiffany Chen.
“I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo,” De Niro, 79, said in a statement Monday. “We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo.”