Whatever Happened To Andre The Giant's Daughter, Robin?

Andre the Giant was one of the most legendary figures in the history of professional wrestling, with an iconic look and the ability to enrapture fans from around the world. Beyond his legacy in professional wrestling, Andre Roussimoff also left behind a daughter, named Robin Christensen-Roussimoff.

Born in 1979, Christensen-Roussimoff was the result of Andre's relationship with a woman named Jean Christensen, a WWE employee that Andre met in the early 1970s. Their relationship wasn't serious, but it led to a protracted battle on Jean's part to ensure Andre offered some assistance to help raise Robin.

Christensen-Roussimoff could only ever recall meeting Andre a handful of times throughout her youth, and shortly before the wrestler's death, she and her mother appeared on a show called "A Current Affair" to discuss the strained relationship. In the interview, Jean recalled meeting Andre and being impressed by his height, and she eventually acknowledged having a brief romantic relationship with the Frenchman.

Though Jean was under the impression that Andre was unable to have children, she became pregnant from the encounter. Andre was initially hesitant to believe that the child was his, but a 1981 court-ordered blood test revealed the truth.

Eventually, Andre was ordered by the court to begin making payments of $750-$1000 a month in child support. According to Jean, it wasn't Andre himself who was hesitant to make the payments, but rather his managers and entourage attempting to keep as much of his money for themselves as possible.

Andre's wrestling schedule made it hard to maintain a relationship with Robin, and his tense relationship with her mother only compounded that. According to the book "The Eighth Wonder of the World" by Bertrand Hebert and Pat Laprade, Andre's attempts to talk to Robin over the phone often resulted in arguments with Jean. Andre only wanted to spend time with Robin, not Jean, and the young girl was understandably hesitant to visit Andre without having her mother there. At the same time, neither Jean nor Andre wanted Robin to spend too much time around the wrestling business.

A man of few words, Andre never spoke about his relationship with his daughter publicly, and there were even plenty of wrestlers who never knew Andre had a child. However, some close to Andre have told stories about how deeply he cared for his daughter, despite their seeming lack of a strong relationship. Andre's occasional tag team partner Haku recalled once seeing Andre cry after being forced to miss a visit with Robin.

The last time that Robin spoke to her father was in late 1992, about one month before he died. She talked to him over the phone, with Andre making an attempt to connect with his daughter by asking about her hobbies and Christmas weather. Though Robin has since said she has forgiven Andre for his absence as a father, she has said that it still causes some degree of pain.

Prior to his death, Andre made it so that his estate would pass on to Robin. However, he was paranoid that her mother, Jean, would take control of the money, so the estate was placed in a trust that Robin couldn't access until she turned 30, in 2009.

These days, Robin makes occasional convention appearances, where she shows off memorabilia related to her father and shares some of her limited memories of him. She was involved in the 2018 HBO documentary on her father's life, and had approved a Hollywood biopic about Andre, though it was never made.

Speaking to Bill Apter at a convention in 2020, Christensen-Roussimoff recalled her favorite memory of Andre. Robin was a huge fan of "The Princess Bride," a movie in which Andre played a prominent role. Shortly after the film was released in 1987, Andre visited with his daughter, and she remembers sitting in his lap as he quoted the movie, much to her enjoyment.