Vin Diesel does everything he can to keep his friend's legacy alive. He even named his own daughter in honor of Paul Walker.
Vin Diesel is paying tribute to his late friend and costar Paul Walker. Sharing a throwback photo of the two Fast and Furious stars, the 55-year-old wrote, "Nine years… love you and miss you." Paul Walker tragically passed away on November 30, 2013, in a car crash at the age of 40. His only child, daughter Meadow Rain, was just 15 years old at the time. Vin Diesel often pays tribute to the late actor. On what would've been his 48th birthday last year in September, Diesel wrote a note to Walker about how much he misses him, stating, "So much to tell you... normally I would say you wouldn’t believe how I spent your birthday... but by the safe outcome, I know you were there with me in spirit. Miss you. Always."
Walker died shortly after production had started on Furious 7. His brother Cody spoke to TMZ revealing how Diesel honored his brother in the most respectful way both on and off-screen. "I think Vin and the whole family have done a good job tastefully letting the character ride off into the sunset. I think Paul would get a real kick out of where it's gone. It's gotten so crazy. It's a wild, wild ride at this point," said Cody, who briefly appeared in the film to help the franchise write off Walker's character. "I can't speculate what he would think, I just know that Vin always takes a very serious approach to keeping Paul's legacy in mind and has always done a really nice job paying tribute to his character," Cody added. "They worked together and were brothers for years. They were all so young when this thing first started."
Even in Paul Walker's absence, the Walker and Diesel family share a close bond. Walker's daughter Meadow often spends time with Diesel's family. She's even shared pictures with Diesel and his children, Hania, Vincent, and Pauline. In one she simply captioned it, "family <3"
Meadow is Diesel's goddaughter, and he treats her like his own even walking her down the aisle for her wedding day! On her big day, when the then 23-year-old model decided to get married to actor Louis Thornton-Allan, she walked down the aisle to her groom-to-be, holding Diesel's hand. Diesel even named his own daughter with partner Paloma Jimenez Pauline in honor of Paul Walker. "I named her Pauline," Diesel, who already has a son and a daughter with Jimenez, told Natalie Morales on TODAY. "He was in the room," Diesel said. "There's no other person that I was thinking about as I was cutting this umbilical cord. I just ... knew he was there. It felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my family and a part of my world," he explained.
References:
https://www.today.com/parents/paul-walker-tribute-vin-diesel-reveals-his-new-babys-name-t10586
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Kevin Winter
