It’s not easy to be the child of a celebrity, especially one as iconic as the late professional wrestler André René Roussimoff, better known as Andre the Giant. However, his daughter Robin Christensen-Roussimoff has carved out a nice life for herself, honoring her father while creating an identity all her own. Read on to find out who she is and what she did with her life after her father’s passing.
In case you were unaware, Andre the Giant is absolutely one of the most legendary human beings to ever grace this planet. He was 7’4” and 520 pounds, a ridiculous weight and height that made him immediately recognizable wherever he went. Robin isn’t quite as well known, either in the wrestling community or the entertainment world, which is strange considering she once laced up the wrestling boots herself.
Known as quite the ladies man, there was only one woman who could tame the wild beast that was Andre the Giant, and her name was Jean Christensen. She worked in the publicity department at WWE and apparently caught the big man’s eye. There are various reports about whether they were married or not, but one thing is for sure: they consummated and Robin was born. She would be his only child.
Unfortunately, the two didn’t have the chance to become close, owing to a tough relationship between her mother and the Giant. She guesses she met him maybe five times before he passed away on Jan. 29, 1993 at 46 years old. Robin was only 14 at the time.
Andre, born in 1946, was 11 pounds when he was born. His massive size was the result of a hormone issue known as acromegaly, which caused his huge growth. There are gives and takes in this life, and while Andre was told he wouldn’t live a long one, his huge stature made him ideal to be a star in the wrestling world.
In a televised interview from 1990, Jean said that as a tall woman herself, she loved that Andre would still tower over her regardless of her footwear. Despite there being “no spark there” she eventually gave in to his charms. “It was just somebody I’d run into,” she said. “Eventually, yes, there was that nod-nod-winky-winky thing.”
She also claimed that she was under the impression Andre was sterile, so she wasn’t too worried about pregnancy. That didn’t last long, and before she knew it she was giving birth to a little girl in France. She named her Robin. The new addition to the relationship didn’t bring the couple closer, in fact, quite the opposite happened and they broke up.
Between Andre’s work schedule and the general animosity between her parents, young Robin wouldn’t get a chance to get to know her father on a personal level. In a panel at New York City Comic-Con in 2016, she said the first time she met Andre was when she got a blood test at a doctor’s office to prove (or disprove) his parentage. In fact, she didn’t even know her father was in the 1987 film The Princess Bride until she saw him on the screen.
The last time she saw him, she said, was in a courtroom in a dispute between Andre and her mother over child support payments. Robin grew up in Seattle and her mother didn’t let her watch wrestling in the house, thinking it would give her a warped opinion of her father. “She wanted me to form my own opinions on my dad, not what the media sold him as,” she said. To her, Andre was just “dad.”
In 2018, she told The Post Game that her father’s persona “never really touched” her. “When I saw him, he was dad — because I saw him behind the ring. I didn’t watch the matches. I saw him backstage.”
Robin said her father would invite her to his ranch in North Carolina, but she was somewhat hesitant to fly across the country alone and visit. According to a friend of Andre’s named Jackie McAuley, not seeing his daughter “broke his heart.”
However, Robin said she never felt like her father shut her out, and that she could always reach him when she wanted to. When he died, he left his entire estate to her, and she is currently his sole heir.
While she briefly dipped her toe in wrestling, today she acts as the protector of her father’s image in public, as well as his reputation. She currently lives in Seattle and keeps to herself, but she does give interviews about her father and is happy to talk about his life with interested people. She said she watches old tapes of him and feels “mixed emotions.”
“… we didn’t have the relationship that we could have had. And a lot of it had to do with his work schedule. Yeah, it’s not easy to watch.”