EXCLUSIVE: Inside Robert Redford's Tragic Family History: Movie Star Was Left Shattered After Death of Infant Son — 'People Think It's Been Easy For Me'

Robert Redford may have charmed Hollywood for decades with his smile and good looks, but behind the warm personality was a man who had dark days and devastating losses, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

A closer look at the movie star's life comes after his death at the age of 89.

"People think it’s been easy for me,” Redford once told People. "It's so untrue." When he was just 11 years old, Redford was stricken with polio, forcing him to spend several weeks in bed.

He explained in the interview: "Before the Salk vaccine was discovered, what hung over your childhood was always the fear of polio because all you saw were people in iron lungs."

"I was around when the polio epidemic was still a threat ... so when Jonas Salk invented the vaccine, it was just earth-shat­tering news," Redford said in 2014, as he paid tribute to Jo­nas Salk in a docu­mentary.

In 1955, the Ordinary People director was hit with more pain as his mother, Martha, died from a hemorrhage at age 40.

"I took her for granted be­cause that’s the way kids were at that age,” Redford said about his mom's death, admitting, "My regret is that she passed away before I could thank her."

Following her death, Redford drowned himself in booze while in college, eventually being kicked out and losing his scholarship. He ended up studying at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made his Broadway debut in Tall Story. From there, the Hollywood star tied the knot with Lola Van Wagenen in 1958.

They welcomed their first child in September 1959, but the couple was crushed when 10-week-old Scott died of sudden infant death syndrome.

He recalled: "It was really hard. We were very young. We didn’t know anything about sudden infant death syndrome, so as a parent, you blame yourself. It creates a scar that never completely heals."

After grieving, the young pair had a daughter, Shauna, the following year. Their second son, James, was then born premature in 1962 with respiratory distress syndrome, a breathing disorder that affects newborns.

"The hardest thing in the world is when your children have problems," the Oscar winner said at one time. "There have been so many hits on our family that no one knows about, and I don't want them to, for my family’s sake."

James would later be diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that affects the liver and bile ducts, as an adult. While he received two liver transplants in 1993, he died in 2020.

"The grief is immeasurable with the loss of a child," Redford's rep said at the time. "Jamie was a loving son, husband, and father. His legacy lives on through his children, art, filmmaking, and devoted passion to conservation and the environment."

The Captain America actor's death was announced on September 16. Redford's agent Cindi Berger announced the acclaimed star died in his sleep "at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved."

Berger noted the Redford would "be missed greatly."

Redford had made a surprise appearance on AMC's hit show Dark Winds months before his passing in an attempt to launch a "revenge comeback" and shut down rumors he was sick and dying.