Model and actress Toukie Smith, former partner of Robert De Niro, dies at 74

The announcement

Toukie Smith, a model and actress who had a relationship with Robert De Niro, died on 4 November 2026 in a New York hospital at the age of 74. Her twin children, Airyn and Julian De Niro, confirmed the death on Monday, 9 November, and The Hollywood Reporter said she had died after a long and brave battle with multiple sclerosis. In a joint statement, the twins, both 31, described their mother as a woman of remarkable energy and personality. They also recognised the role she played in opening doors for the next generations of Black models and designers. Airyn shared a personal photograph of her mother on Instagram with a short message of love.

From modelling to fashion

Smith was born Doris Smith in Philadelphia on 25 September 1952, and her nickname came from her grandmother. In a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times she said she had always had a lot of energy, and the name came from a children's record about a small red fire truck. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and started modelling in 1972. Her work put her in front of designers including Hubert de Givenchy, Thierry Mugler, Issey Miyake and Patrick Kelly, and her photographs appeared in Vogue, Ebony, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen. In 1978 the department store Bloomingdale's named her Model of the Year, and she also modelled for her brother, the designer Willi Smith, who died in 1987 at the age of 39.

Television and film

Smith left the runway in the early 1980s and later moved into acting. She played Angie, the assistant to a pop singer, in three episodes of the fourth season of Miami Vice in 1987 and 1988. In 1989 she joined the NBC sitcom 227 as the artist Eva Rawley, a role she kept until May 1990, alongside Marla Gibbs. Her film credits include Talkin' Dirty After Dark, Joe's Apartment and The Preacher's Wife, the last two released in 1996. She also ran a catering company, Toukie's Taste, which operated for three years, and a New York restaurant under her name that closed in the mid-1990s.

Relationship and family

Smith and Robert De Niro were together from 1988 to 1996 and kept much of their family life away from the public eye. Their twins were conceived through artificial insemination, carried by a surrogate mother and born in October 1995. The couple separated in 1996, a year after the twins were born. Smith's modelling career had already begun years before the relationship started, so she was known in her own right before she became linked to the actor. Robert De Niro, 83, is the father of the twins.

Her brother's legacy

In interviews, Smith said she wanted to create a museum to preserve her brother's legacy and the large collection of clothing he had gathered over decades. Willi Smith's WilliWear label was known for inventive and affordable clothing, and she modelled his designs. The family's statement referred to the creative legacy she leaves behind. Her death closes a career that spanned fashion, television and film over four decades.