De Niro's girlfriend testifies that his former assistant was territorial, mean-spirited

MANHATTAN (CN) — Tiffany Chen, Robert De Niro’s girlfriend, testified in federal court Thursday that his former assistant was “very territorial, very angry, very confrontational” while working for him.

Just days ago the famed actor, who most recently starred in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” took the stand to address a four-year-old legal battle with his former assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, in Manhattan federal court.

Robinson resigned in 2019 after working for the “Taxi Driver” actor for 11 years. De Niro subsequently filed a lawsuit through his company Canal Productions that claimed Robinson abused her company credit card, stole millions of airline miles and stole money from the company in the form of unused vacation days. Two months later, Robinson sued De Niro for harassment and gender discrimination.

In fall 2018, Robinson began assisting De Niro with preparing a five-bedroom townhouse he had bought that year. As the townhouse was still being worked on, De Niro and Chen decided to move in together.

“I started to see from the beginning that she was angry all the time and just mean-spirited and bitter,” Chen said in court Thursday.

Chen and De Niro met in 2014 while working on “The Intern,” which starred Anne Hathaway alongside De Niro. The pair has lived together for about five years and had a baby in April.

Despite her initial dislike of Robinson, Chen said she tried to be nice because “felt bad for her.”

In a text to Robinson in December 2018, Chen said she was “killing her with kindness,” because she thought it would get her to relax.

“I am so grateful to be able to experience the wonderful results of the beautiful relationship you [and De Niro] have built over the years,” Chen wrote in the text.

When asked if these statements were true at the time, Chen said she was “being nice” and “sarcastic.”

As Chen got to know Robinson better through the townhouse project, she said she realized Robinson acted differently when De Niro wasn’t around.

“She was doing her crazy double-take to sway him from decisions I wanted,” Chen said.

Chen recounted a time at the townhouse when, after De Niro called from upstairs to ask what his schedule was for the day, Robinson leaned over to Chen and complained about how annoying he was.

She also said she was bothered by how Robinson acted like the “lady of the house” when working on the townhouse.

“She thinks she’s your wife and I’m tired of her rearranging things and throwing my stuff on the floor in chaos,” Chen wrote in a text to De Niro.

On top of throwing her stuff on the floor, Chen also said Robinson would unplug her belongings, reorganize furniture and excessively prune plants in the house.

Eventually Chen said she wanted Robinson to be taken off any project involving the townhouse, but added she never asked De Niro to fire her from Canal Productions.

Before Robinson’s resignation, Chen said, De Niro was planning to hold a Canal Productions meeting about issues with her behavior and performance at work. But Robinson resigned before that could happen.

Chen said she advised De Niro not to give Robinson a severance.

“She’d been stealing the whole time,” Chen exclaimed from the witness stand. “She didn’t deserve any more; she took it already.”

Chen finished testifying about an hour before trial adjourned for the day. Robinson was called next.

She got through just 20 minutes of testimony, but quickly asserted that her relationship with De Niro was strictly professional, and contested his claims that he only called her during “civil hours” of the day. They talked five to 10 times a day, Robinson testified, and he often called her after 10:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, De Niro rebuffed claims that he had often yelled at Robinson. But according to the former assistant, the A-lister would yell if she didn’t pick up the phone, if he didn’t see an email and if he couldn’t find his driver.

“He was frustrated often,” she said.

Robinson will take the stand again tomorrow and is expected to testify for the majority of the day. U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, a Donald Trump appointee, is presiding.

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