Robert De Niros estranged wife Grace Hightower will not receive half of the actors $500m wealth – Daily Mail

Robert De Niro’s estranged wife Grace Hightower will not receive half of the actor’s purported wealth, an appeals court has ruled.

It was previously revealed that Grace’s average monthly spend was $215,000 a month on credit cards and $160,000 in cash. Robert’s attorney, Caroline Krauss, has claimed the financial strain means the actor is running out of money. 

The socialite, 66, argued that The Godfather star’s reported net worth of $500 million dollars should be split evenly as they are ‘marital assets’ according to a prenuptial agreement made in 2004. 

However, her proposals were rejected by the Appellate Division, which upheld a lower court’s ruling made in February 2021. 

The court decision read, ‘The husband’s income earned during the marriage and other business assets acquired during that time are his separate property.’ 

Despite this, the Nobu co-founder will continue to pay his wife $1 million per year until one of them dies – or she remarries – in alimony.

Grace is set to bag millions from the prenup, which will force Robert to to sell their $20 million dollar home in order to release equity of $6 million

It will allow the philanthropist to buy a property of her own in which she will live with their two children Elliot, 23, and Helen Grace, nine.

The spouses have been locked in a divorce battle since December 2018. 

Robert and Grace were married in 1997, split in 1999, then got back together, renewed their vows in 2004 before he filed for divorce in 2018.

Initially the pair fought over custody of their youngest child but now the arguments are over money and property. 

She said the coronavirus pandemic led to a drying up of work projects for the Hollywood star.

Months earlier, De Niro earned $5 million for acting in Martin Scorsese’s hit gangster flick, The Irishman. He also received ‘tens of millions of dollars’ through a federal coronavirus relief program.

Hightower claims that De Niro is worth $500 million, but his attorney Caroline Krauss says that his estranged wife’s extravagant lifestyle is making things worse.

In 2019 alone, she reportedly spent $1.67 million (£1.2 million), most of it on a $1.2 million (£860,000) diamond from a high-end New York jewellers.

On top of Grace’s rocketing financial demands, De Niro’s attorney revealed the actor owes millions in unpaid taxes. She said the income from his next two films will be devoted to paying off this debt, which in 2015 was revealed to be $6.4 million (£4.6 million).

Naturally, the Hightower camp hasn’t taken all this sitting down. Her lawyer, Kevin McDonough, countered that his client was owed payments to ‘maintain the status quo’ lifestyle she enjoyed with De Niro during their marriage.

Before this, he was married to actress Diahnne Abbott, but the pair divorced in 1988.

Robert has six children; Drena, 49, Raphael, 44, Helen Grace, Elliot, Julian Henry, 25, and Aaron Kendrick, 25.