Robert De Niro’s girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, spoke in the actor’s defense at a discrimination trial taking place in New York on Thursday, November 2. She claims that the plaintiff in the suit, De Niro’s former assistant Graham Chase Robinson, was a “psychotic single white female” who had an “imaginary intimacy” with the “Meet the Fockers” star, per The Daily Mail.
Why is Robert De Niro being sued?
Graham Chase Robinson is accusing 80-year-old Robert De Niro of discrimination, claiming that when she worked for him at Canal Productions between 2008 and 2019, he treated her like his “office wife.”
Her $12 million lawsuit was first filed in 2019, not long after De Niro sued Robinson for misuse of the production company’s accounts.
Graham claims she was forced to perform tasks that were below her pay grade, such as scratching De Niro’s back. She also claimed she received less compensation as a male employee on her level.
In other words, it seems a bit bogus, but that’s up to the court to decide.
Tiffany Chen wanted De Niro to get rid of Robinson.
She admitted as much on the stand, telling the court that she pushed De Niro to get rid of her when financial issues began cropping up over private jet catering and renovations to their Manhattan townhouse.
In one email the court saw days before, Chen wrote to De Niro: “If you keep her, you and I will have problems.”
When she resigned in April 2019, Robinson was the vice president of Canal Productions and was making around $300,000 a year — a big raise, especially considering she’d started out as his lowly assistant 12 years prior.
Graham Chase Robinson was compared to the lead character from “Single White Female.”
It’s safe to say there was no love lost between Robinson and Tiffany Chen, with the latter calling the former “obsessive, psychotic, and dangerous.”
A 2019 text from Chen to De Niro laid the issues out clearly, with Chen writing: “Her possessive manner over the house makes me very uncomfortable.”
“Her sense of entitlement stems from this imagined intimacy she has with you. She thinks she’s your wife and decided to be the lady of the house.”
The case continues.
