Robert Henry Halfon was born in the Westminster district of London on 22 March 1969, and grew up in London's Hampstead area. His mother, Jennifer, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His Libyan Jewish father, Clement, is Orthodox and comes from a Sephardic family; he now lives in Israel. Halfon's paternal grandfather, Renato Halfon, was an Italian Jewish clothing manufacturer living in Libya until he was forced to leave in 1968, after which he joined Clement in England.
