Toukie Smith, model and Robert De Niro's ex, dies aged 74
Model and actress Toukie Smith, who had twins Airyn and Julian with ex-partner Robert De Niro, has passed away.
Toukie Smith has died aged 74 after a "long" battle with multiple sclerosis.
The actress and model, who had twins Airyn and Julian with ex-partner Robert De Niro, is best known for her role as Eva Rawley in 227, and her work with brands like Chanel and Versace.
Smith and De Niro's children told The Hollywood Reporter that their mother died on Wednesday (04.11.26) in a New York hospital.
They said she passed away after a "long, courageous battle" with MS.
Smith rose to fame as a top model in the 1970s, appearing in magazines like Ebony, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Redbook and Seventeen, while she was named Bloomingdale's model of the year in 1978.
She moved into acting after landing the recurring role as Eva in NBC sitcom 227 in 1989, remaining on the show for two seasons until May 1990.
Smith went onto appear on the big screen in the likes of 1991's Talkin' Dirty After Dark, 1994's I Like It Like That, and both Joe's Apartment and The Preacher's Wife in 1996.
She started a relationship with De Niro in 1988, and they welcomed their twins via surrogate in October 1995, before breaking up the following year.
The pair have remained tight lipped about their time together and their breakup, keeping their romance largely out of the public eye.
Back in 1990, she told the Los Angeles Times newspaper: "What’s great about a private life is it’s private."
At the time, Smith also spoke of her desire to open a fashion museum using all the items in her so-called "storage room", as a nod to her late brother Willi Smith, the fashion designer who died aged 39 in 1987 from pneumonia related to AIDS.
She added: "I have everything Willi made for me from my sixth-grade graduation dress on. I kept it all.”
Away from modelling and acting, Smith embraced her love for food with New York City eatery Toukie's Taste, which was around for three years and even catered Sean Penn and Madonna's wedding anniversary celebration.
Smith, whose real first name was Doris, explained that the Toukie moniker was given to her by her grandmother.
She revealed: “It was a nickname my grandmother gave me that came from a children’s record about a little red fire engine with lots of energy. I’ve always had lots of energy.”
