Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Welcome Baby Boy Named River After Actor’s Late Brother (Report)

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara are putting family first.

The couple reportedly became first-time parents to a baby boy recently and found a touching way to make sure their son honors the memory of a late loved one, naming him River after Joaquin’s late older brother.

Director Victor Kossakovsky revealed the news onstage at the Zurich Film Festival over the weekend, sharing in a Q&A session that Joaquin wasn’t able to join him to celebrate their new documentary “Gunda” because of fatherhood duties.

🚨 Viktor Kossakovsky 📽️, Gunda: He just had a baby Boy who's Called River. ( about Joaquin) pic.twitter.com/WuUISnuTsZ

— Max California's Lover (@Paula_FlorV) September 27, 2020

“He just got a baby, by the way, his name was … a beautiful son called River, so he cannot promote it now,” the filmmaker said, according to video posted to social media from the event.

Reps for Joaquin and Rooney did not immediately respond to Access Hollywood’s request for comment.

River Phoenix sadly died of a drug overdose in 1993 at just 23 years old. River was a star on the rise at the time with breakout roles in “Stand by Me,” “My Own Private Idaho” and more.

Joaquin, 45, has since gone on to become a Hollywood A-lister in his own right and won the Best Actor Oscar earlier this year for his acclaimed turn in “Joker.”

He and Rooney, 35, starred together in “Her” and “Mary Magdalene” and reportedly became engaged in 2019, three years after they were first linked.

The stars have kept their romance mostly under the radar with the exception of a few high-profile red carpet appearances, and Joaquin once told Vanity Fair that he was so intrigued with Rooney he couldn’t help but do a little research on his own when wanting to learn more about her.

“She’s the only girl I ever looked up on the internet,” he said. “We were just friends, email friends. I’d never done that. Never looked a girl up online.”

— Erin Biglow