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Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara ‘welcome baby boy named River’ in tribute to actor’s late brother

Watch: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara welcome baby boy

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have reportedly welcomed their first child together.

The couple, who first started dating in 2016, are proud parents to a baby son named River, according to one of Phoenix’s former collaborators.

Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival, director Victor Kossakovsky explained that Phoenix, who served as an executive producer on his new film Gunda, could not “promote” the movie as “he just got a baby [...] a beautiful son named River.”

The baby’s name appears to be a moving tribute to Oscar winner Phoenix’s late brother, an actor known for roles in films like Stand By Me and My Own Private Idaho, who died at the age of 23 in 1993.

Reuters
Reuters

(Reuters)

Neither Phoenix, 45, nor Mara, 35, have commented on the news or the pregnancy publicly, as they have previously preferred to keep their relationship out of the spotlight.

Additional reports suggest that the pair welcomed their son around one month ago.

Standard Online has contacted representatives for the couple for further comment.

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(AFP via Getty Images)

The couple are thought to have first met while working on Spike Jonze’s film Her in 2013 and were first romantically linked in 2016 when they next worked together on the film Mary Magdalene.

They confirmed their engagement in May 2019.

Phoenix previously paid emotional tribute to his older brother in his Oscar acceptance speech earlier this year, after receiving the Best Actor award for his performance in Joker.

“When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric, he said, ‘Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow,’” he told the audience.

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