Hollywood icon Robert De Niro had a heartwarming reaction to his daughter, Airyn De Niro, coming out publicly as trans earlier this week.

In a statement released to multiple news outlets, Robert De Niro declared that he loved and supported Airyn De Niro before she came out and that nothing has changed.

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“I love and support Airyn as my daughter,” he said, before boiling down the current backlash to trans people’s existence in the simplest of terms: “I don’t know what the big deal is.”

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He then added, “I love all my children.” He has seven.

Airyn De Niro, 29, came out as trans on Tuesday in an interview with Them after a series of gossipy articles about her “new look” essentially outed her before she could do it herself.

“Not only did they get information wrong about me… They just sort of reminded me that people really don’t know anything about me,” she said, adding, “There’s a difference between being visible and being seen. I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.”

She told the publication she has presented as femme since middle school but decided to begin hormone therapy last November.

“Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it’s not too late for me. Maybe I can start.”

“I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me,” she said. “I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”

She also shared the way she hopes to be that influence for others.

“I’d want to hopefully be an inspiration for at least one other person like me who is Black, who is queer, who’s not a size extra small. I’d want to see more trans women, more Black women who are maybe bigger-bodied or don’t fit the mold of super thin or heroin chic.”

While working toward her own acting and modeling dreams, she also said she’s studying to be a mental health counselor.

“People of color and queer people definitely need more mental health advocacy and support. So I’m hoping I’m able to do that,” she said. “The field originally was so catered to white cis hetero men — what they deem as wrong or right or mentally ill or whatever, that is from their lens.”

“It’s really beneficial to work with a counselor or mental health professional who can relate to you or intersects with some part of you.”

She added that she hopes when people see her, they see “someone who is trying their hardest to heal from growing up not feeling good about themselves. [And] in the process of that, trying to make other people feel good about themselves.” 

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