Congratulations are in order for Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix! The happy couple has welcomed a baby boy, and his arrival was special for a number of reasons.
As Us Weekly reports, their baby was named in honor of Joaquin’s late brother.
The baby news first broke during a Q&A at the 2020 Zurich Film Festival on September 27, when Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky told those in attendance about the new arrival.
“He just got a baby, by the way, his name was … a beautiful son called River, so he cannot promote it now,” he explained after a showing of the documentary Gunda. And as sweet as the news is, the tribute to Joaquin Phoenix’s brother is unbelievably touching.
The actor’s older brother, River Phoenix, passed away in 1993 at the age of 23 after a drug overdose, but his legacy lives on.
Neither Rooney Mara nor Joaquin Phoenix has social media, so there’s no telling when we’ll see a pic of little River. Hopefully fans will catch a glimpse sooner than later!
The baby’s arrival comes just a little over a year after Us Weekly broke the news of the couple’s engagement. The Carol actress was spotted rocking a large diamond ring in May 2019, and in July, the publication confirmed the duo’s plans to wed.
While we don’t know when the actors will be getting married, we do know that the notoriously private pair had been dating for three years prior to their engagement. It was a big deal to fans when in 2017, Phoenix revealed the two were living together during an interview with The New York Times.
Now, with their growing family, it seems these two are definitely in it for the long haul!