A-list actor and director Mel Gibson is expecting his ninth child at the age of 60.
Gibson’s girlfriend, writer Rosalind Ross, is pregnant, as confirmed by Gibson’s publicist Alan Nierob.
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Gibson, who won an Oscar for directing Braveheart, has seven children from his marriage to his ex-wife, Robyn Moore. Their youngest child is 17.
He also had a 6-year-old daughter with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, bringing his already-existing child count to eight.
“Mel and Rose are so excited about the baby,” reports a close friend of the couple to People magazine. “Mel loves being a dad and he and Rose can’t wait to be parents together. The last two years have been some of his happiest years he’s ever had.”
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This will be a first child for former equestrian vaulter Ross, 26.
Gibson’s career fell apart over the course of 2006, when Gibson was accused of being an alcoholic, a wife-beater, a misogynist and an anti-Semite. In July of that year, he was pulled over in California by a Jewish police officer, and he reportedly said “F**king Jews … the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?” In another incident, he allegedly called a female officer “sugar tits.”
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In case that wasn’t enough, his wife left him after accusing him of beating her; the case she brought was subsequently dropped after Gibson pleaded guilty to misdemeanour battery. The couple lasted barely a year, divorcing shortly after. Since these multiple career catastrophes, Gibson has been relatively absent from film, save for a role in the alcoholism-focused 2011 Jodie Foster movie, The Beaver.
Coming soon: a sequel to The Passion of the Christ, but first, Gibson’s latest directing effort, the World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge, debuted earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival to a 10-minute standing ovation. It’s due in theatres on Nov. 4.
With files from The Associated Press
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