Robert de Nirohis girlfriend, Tiffany Chentook the stand against his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson.
Chen testified against Robinson on Thursday, November 2, the fourth day of De Niro’s gender discrimination trial in New York City. De Niro, 80, and his production company, Canal Productions, initially sued Robinson, 41, in 2019 for allegedly spending thousands of dollars of the company’s money, watching Netflix on the road and transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars in airline miles to her personal account, according to the New York Times.
In response, Robinson contradicted De Niro in 2019, accusing the actor of being an abusive boss while she worked for him from 2008 to 2019. (Robinson started as an assistant for De Niro before eventually being promoted to vice president of production and finance in 2018. A year later, she ultimately resigned.)
During her testimony on Thursday, Chen claimed that Robinson was “mean,” “nasty to people” and a “pretty terrible person” while employed by De Niro, according to Entertainment tonight. A series of text messages between Chen and De Niro about Robinson were also shared out loud while Chen was on the stand.
“You know and agree that she has been deliberately unkind, inappropriate and a downright bitch,” Chen’s post read.
Chen’s texts also reportedly accused Robinson of being “so outrageous and lost in her fantasy” and only interested in “his credit card, not him.”
“If you keep her, you and I will eventually have problems,” Chen wrote to De Niro before Robinson left her job.
Chen’s testimony echoed similar sentiments shared by De Niro while on the stand earlier that week. The murderers of the flower moon star appeared in court on Monday, October 30, claiming that Robinson had an “imagined intimacy” with him and that Chen was suspicious of her behavior.
“She felt something was there and maybe she was right,” De Niro recalled of his girlfriend’s observations. Robinson’s lawyer Andreas Macurdydenied any romance speculation between his client and the Oscar winner.
In the lawsuit against Robinson, she alleged that De Niro yelled at her, berated her and made sexist comments during her tenure. After quitting in 2019, Macurdy said Robinson has been unable to find work and is afraid to leave her home. She is suing for $12 million in emotional damages and damage to her reputation.
While on the stand, De Niro reportedly appeared aggravated during the trial and raised his voice twice during his testimony, according to the Associated press.
In Robinson’s October 2019 filingshe stated that she had to perform “demanding tasks” for De Niro, including buttoning his shirts, scratching his back and cleaning his apartment, according to NBC News. Robinson also called her former boss “someone who clung to old mores,” adding, “He doesn’t accept the idea that men should treat women as equals.” He doesn’t care that gender discrimination in the workplace is against the law.”