Benicio Del Toro Reflects on His Mother’s Death When He Was 9

Speaking candidly about grief, Benicio del Toro opened up about his mother’s death when he was a child. 

Del Toro’s mother, Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, died of hepatitis when he was just 9 years old. 

“I’m still dealing with it,” the One Battle After Another actor, 59, told The Hollywood Reporter in a cover story published on Monday, February 23. “I had my mother for nine years. What is crazy about losing a parent at that age is that there hasn’t been one day in my life that I haven’t thought about her.”

When del Toro met Japanese director Kaneto Shindo, he discovered that he, too, had lost his mother at 9 years old, and later made a film about her to further cope with and understand his grief. 

“I asked, ‘Did that help deal with that pain? To make the film. Did it cure something? Did it repair something?’ ” del Toro recalled, to which Shindo replied, “Absolutely nothing.”

🎬SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬

Del Toro is a parent himself. He and Kimberly Stewart, one of Rod Stewart’s daughters, welcomed their daughter, Delilah Genoveva Stewart del Toro, on August 21, 2011.

Speaking about fatherhood in 2016, del Toro said, “I try to stay under the radar now. I’m a father, and that changes everything … I’m thinking about the future of another human being who I’m in love with.”