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Vin Diesel had a pre-taped interview which aired on The Today Show this morning. He’s promoting Furious 7, which is out April 3 and would surely be a huge hit with zero promotion. In his talk with Natalie Morales, which took place over headsets in a helicopter, Diesel got choked up when he revealed that his new baby, born about two weeks ago, is a girl whom he named Pauline. Pauline is of course in honor of the late Paul Walker, who passed in a tragic car accident in November, 2013. Furious 7 will be Walker’s final film. Here’s what Diesel told Morales, and you can see the video below:

As the actor revealed on NBC’s Today Monday, “I named her Pauline.”

“There’s no other person that I’m thinking about as I’m cutting this umbilical cord,” he added. “I knew he was there and I felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my memory, a part of my world.”

Diesel also revealed why he broke the news with anchor Natalie Morales. “I’m telling you this because I love you,” he told the journalist. “I know that you are a good soul, and I know that this is in good hands.”

Pauline, whose birth was announced via Facebook March 16, is Diesel’s third child with Paloma Jiménez. The actor and his longtime girlfriend are also the proud parents of daughter Hania Riley Sinclair, 6, and son Vincent Sinclair, 4.

[From E! Online]

That just gets me verklempt. I got the impression that Diesel told Morales this in the helicopter because he didn’t want the audience to see him cry. It must be so hard for him to talk about losing his best friend.

Vanity Fair has a video of Vin introducing a screening of Furious 7 at SXSW. He explained that he had just come from the hospital and said it was “a good thing,” but didn’t say why. (His daughter had just been born.) He also said “this was a very personal and important film to us… every time when I saw the movie at the premiere, Paul Walker would go off to the side and say ‘Vin, the best one’s still in the can…’ I hope… this is the best one for you guys.” He also warned the audience against revealing spoilers.

Then Vin explained why the film was so personal to him, and after he said this he had to stop talking for a minute because he got choked up. He said “This was a labor of love. It was in some ways the hardest movie I ever had to do because the relationships that you see on film are so real. When the tragedy happened, I lost my best friend. I lost my brother.”

In response, the audience started yelling that they loved him and one guy said “you got family here, Vin.” He recovered and said “Thanks for being my family, thanks for always taking care of us… thanks for taking the themes that we put in this action saga and somehow applying it to your own lives. You know what’s most important in life.” The audience said “family”. I didn’t need a good cry on a Monday morning, but I just got one.

Here’s Vin Diesel’s segment on The Today Show.

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View image | gettyimages.com