Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have opened up about their newborn son for the first time.
News that the Hollywood couple were expecting their first child hit the headlines in May, with reports breaking in September that they had welcomed the baby.
Director Viktor Kossakovsky reportedly told attendees at a screening for Joaquin’s latest movie Gunda that they had named their son River, after Joaquin’s brother who died in 1993.
The couple have remained silent on the birth of their child until Monday, where they addressed becoming new parents with People magazine.
While discussing the migrant children crisis, the couple said: “Like many, we were pained to realise that despite falling out of the headlines, the policy of family separation continues to damage children and parents across the world, more than two years after it was ruled illegal by a federal judge.
“As new parents, it’s unbearable to imagine what it would feel like to have our child taken away from us for a day, let alone years.”
They added: “How will it feel to explain to our son … how we treated scared, defenceless children, some of whom may never see their parents again?”
Joaquin’s brother River, who the baby is reportedly named after, famously died outside Johnny Depp’s LA club The Viper Room at the age of 23.
The musician died from an overdose of cocaine and heroin before paramedics arrived at the scene.
