Nicolas Cage announces birth of first child with wife Riko Shibata, daughter August Francesca

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Nicolas Cage’s wife Riko Shibata has given birth to a baby girl, the couple’s first child together.

The 58-year-old actor and his artist wife, 27, welcomed daughter August Francesca Coppola Cage, on Wednesday 7 September in Los Angeles, a rep confirmed to People.

“Nicolas and Riko are happy to announce the birth of their daughter,” the rep said. “Mother and daughter are doing fine.”

The daughter is Shibata’s first child while Cage has two children – Kal-El, 16, and Weston, 31 – from previous relationships.

The name for their new daughter seems to have changed since Cage announced the news on The Kelly Clarkson Show on 26 April.

Sharing the news with his “favourite song ever written”, “Across the Universe” by The Beatles, Cage said: “And her name, because of ‘Across the Universe’, her name is going to be Lennon Augie. Augie after my father,” he said. Cage’s father, August Coppola, died in 2009.

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“I’ll call her Lenny for short,” Cage added. “I’m thrilled, it’s going to be the biggest adventure of my life.”

“Francesca” seems to be a nod to Cage’s uncle, famed director Francis Ford Coppola. They had planned to name a son Akira Francesco, after him, Cage explained to GQ in April. “My uncle... has decided to change his name to Francesco,” he said.

Cage and Shibata married in February 2021. It marks the actor’s fifth marriage.

Addressing his romantic history, Cage described himself as a “romantic”. “And when I’m in love, I want to give that person everything I can.”

“It’s my expression of saying, ‘I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’ And this is it for me.”