Robert De Niro Says He'll Be
"Lucky" To Earn $7 Million This
Year Due To Coronavirus
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July 18, 2020 by Joseph Gibson
If you've been struggling to make ends meet
financially over the past several months due to the
coronavirus pandemic, take heart, because you are
not alone: Page Six reports that actor Robert De
Niro is claiming in court that he'll be "lucky" if he
makes $7.5 million in 2020, due to the
coronavirus's effects on not just his film projects
but his restaurant and hotel investments as well.
It happened in court, where De Niro's estranged
wife Grace Hightower asked the judge presiding
over the former couple's ongoing divorce for an
emergency extension of her American Express
monthly credit line – from $50,000 back up to
$100,000, where it was previously. Through her
attorneys, Hightower alleged that De Niro cut her
monthly credit from $100,000 to $50,000 for no
good reason, but De Niro's attorneys argue that the
cut happened because COVID-19 has taken a big
bite out of his usual income, particularly from his
investments in New York restaurant chain Nobu
and the Greenwich Hotel.

De Niro's primary divorce attorney, Caroline Krauss,
told the judge that Nobu in particular has been
losing a ton of money over the last several
months, and that De Niro had to borrow $500,000
from various associates in order to pay the other
investors and keep the restaurants afloat. She also
cited the former couple's 2004 prenuptial
agreement, which evidently calls for De Niro to pay
Hightower at least $1 million a year as long as his
income is at $15 million a year or more – a figure
that Krauss says he's got no chance of hitting in
2020:
"His accounts and business manager … says that
the best case for Mr. De Niro, if everything starts
to turn around this year, … he is going to be
lucky if he makes $7.5 million this year."
Of course, De Niro is still a working actor, but
Krauss says that his biggest recent project, The
Irishman for Netflix, has already paid out the bulk
of what it's going to for De Niro's leading role in
the film, for which he's got around $2.5 million
coming for this year and next. And De Niro's next
project was supposed to be filming now, but
production has been suspended due to the virus.
As you might imagine, Hightower's attorney Kevin
McDonough sees things differently calling the
notion "that Mr. De Niro is tightening his belt" to
be "ridiculous." He went on:
"I'm not a believer that a man who has an
admitted worth of $500 million and makes $30
million a year, all of a sudden in March he needs
to cut down [spousal support] by 50 percent and
ban her from the house."
The court's temporary ruling was something of a
compromise between De Niro and Hightower. The
judge ruled that De Niro can keep the monthly
credit limit at $50,000, but that he should hand
over an immediate $75,000 payment in order for
her and their two kids (who are 8 and 21 years
old) to pay for a summer home.


https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/robert-de-niro-says-hell-be-lucky-to-earn-7-million-this-year-due-to-coronavirus/




She said that 'these people' - seemingly a reference
to Hightower and their children - placed great
financial demands on De Niro, preventing him from
retiring.
'These people, in spite of his robust earnings, have
always spent more than he has earned,' Krauss
said, according to the paper.
'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.'
She said that De Niro has begun cutting back his
own spending 'dramatically.'


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8508803/Robert-Niro-says-pandemic-means-going-lucky-makes-7-5-million-year.html