Joaquin Phoenix ‘welcomed his first child with fiancée Rooney Mara a month ago… and named the boy after his late brother River’
Joaquin Phoenix has reportedly welcomed his first child with fiancée Rooney Mara, a baby boy named after his late brother River Phoenix.
Director Victor Kossakovsky spilled the beans at the 2020 Zurich Film Festival after a screening of the film Gunda, on which Joaquin served as executive producer.
He slipped in the news during a Q&A over the weekend, after he was asked how he got the new dad involved in the film: ‘He just got baby by the way… A beautiful son called River.’
Baby makes three! Joaquin Phoenix has reportedly welcomed his first child with fiancee Rooney Mara, a son named after his late brother, River Phoenix
Joaquin, 45, comes from a family of actors, including brother Rain, 47, sisters Liberty, 44, Summer, 41, and his late brother River, who tragically died of a drug overdose in October of 1993, at the age of 23.
River died at the peak of his career, with memorable roles in Stand By Me (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991) already under his belt.
Joaquin recently opened up about River’s legacy in a rare interview with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes.
He revealed Cooper how River showing him the film Raging Bull made him want to be an actor: ‘I think it just… awakened something in me. And I could suddenly see it through his eyes.
‘There’s a part in Raging Bull where De Niro meets a girl in between a chain-link fence. And he, you know, shakes her pinky and it’s like this just beautiful little detail, it’s this wonderful moment. And I think that in some ways is what I’m always looking for.’
He and Rooney, 35, have not officially announced the birth of their firstborn, but they never confirmed their pregnancy in the first place.
A source told Page Six in May that the couple was approximately six months along, soon before she began to show off her baby bump during outings.
Rooney began dating her Her (2013) costar in late 2016, and they later starred together in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot and Mary Magdalene, both of which premiered in 2018.
The animal rights advocates live in the Hollywood Hills with their two dogs Soda and Oskar, and their engagement was confirmed last July.
New mom! Mara spotted out in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly giving birth to son River