Hollywood icon Robert De Niro suffers from dad guilt?

Robert De Niro struggles to balance his acting career and his family life.

The 83-year-old actor - who is a father of seven children, including three-year-old daughter Gia - admits he often feels a bit of guilt when he's away from his family for a long stretch of time.

Speaking to People, the Hollywood icon explained: "I don’t know if there is a secret. It’s just managing it all. And there’s no way around not feeling a little guilty about not being there at times you should or you think you should."

De Niro admitted that he's always learned on the job as a dad.

He said: "It’s a new experience. It’s not like you’ve taken courses on it and stuff. You can, of course, but you don’t. You just jump in and you have the child and you got to ... That’s it."

De Niro plays the estranged father of Adam Scott‘s character in The Whisper, the new Netflix movie, and Adam admitted that there's no guidebook to fatherhood.

The actor said: "No matter how much advice you get or whatever anyone says to you, or tries to, once you’re doing it, it’s a brand new thing and there’s no preparing for it.

"Really, you really have to experience it to figure out how you fit into being a parent. That’s what I found anyway."

Earlier this week, meanwhile, De Niro opened up about his decision to launch the Tribeca Film Festival.

The actor co-founded the world-famous film festival in 2002, and De Niro explained that he hoped to help revitalise New York in the aftermath of 9/11.

In the Netflix documentary Tribeca 25, De Niro shared: "The festival was kind of an act of defiance.

"We had 120 days, 1,300 volunteers, no money, no blueprint, just an idea and a neighbourhood that needed people back in it.

"This wasn’t just about movies; it was about whether downtown was coming back."

Tribeca 25 is directed by Matt Tyrnauer and he explained his ambition for the project.

Matt said in a statement: "Tribeca 25 is a film about reinvention.

"It traces how Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s grit and determination to bring people back downtown after 9/11 evolved into one of the most influential cultural festivals in the world.

"I wanted to make a film about a city and a moment. Through archival footage, interviews, and scenes from downtown, the film explores the relationship between art and civic life — how storytelling can help restore a sense of community after profound tragedy."