De Niro ‘boasted’ about younger girlfriend, called me bitch: ex-staffer

Robert De Niro bragged to his staff about his much-younger girlfriend, his former assistant testified Friday — as she accused the Oscar-winner of calling her a bitch multiple times.

“[De Niro] alluded to the age difference [with girlfriend Tiffany Chen] being 30 years and he boasted about that,” Graham Chase Robinson recalled on the stand.

De Niro, 80, even recruited Robinson to help acclimate Chen, 45, to his townhouse and high-flying lifestyle, she added.

“He said, ‘She’s not [ex-wife] Grace [Hightower] — she’ll need your help,” she recalled of the “Raging Bull” star’s early days with Chen.

Robinson’s claims are the latest in her ongoing legal joust with De Niro, whom she worked for from 2008 through 2019.

In August 2019, De Niro’s Canal Productions sued Robinson for supposedly watching Netflix on the job and skimming off the “Killers of the Flower Moon” actor’s frequent flyer miles.

Robinson subsequently countersued De Niro, whom she accused of being a nightmare boss who was prone to screaming tantrums and subjected her to sexual harassment.

On Friday, Robinson took a moment to compose herself before detailing at least two occasions on which she claims De Niro called her a bitch.

“Bob started berating me. He said I was complaining … He then called back, berated me more and he said I was acting like a little bitch and he hung up,” she tearfully recalled of the pair’s testy exchange following a fire that broke out at that actor’s home.

On another occasion, around Christmas 2017, De Niro was “screaming about not being able to find the presents from the office,” Robinson, 41, continued.

“He was cursing left and right. He just said I was being a bitch because he said I was complaining about him berating me,” she claimed.

Graham Chase Robinson accused her former boss Robert De Niro of calling her a “bitch.”
Gregory P. Mango

“It’s very demeaning. It’s incredibly hurtful to be called that name when you are just trying to do your job.

‘It’s extremely hurtful to hear that [word] from your boss.”

She went on to allege that De Niro asked her to scratch his back “two, two-three times” during the last three years of her employment at Canal.

“I don’t know if I protested [doing it]. I mentioned there was a back scratcher he could use instead,” she explained.

But De Niro insisted, “I like the way that you do it,’” Robinson claimed.

De Niro testified earlier this week.
Alec Tabak

“It’s creepy. It’s just disgusting.”

De Niro himself made headlines on Tuesday, when he exploded on the stand when questioned about the same incident.

“OK, twice? You got me! I’m saying this is nonsense,” he scoffed after admitting to asking Robinson to perform the invasive task — but only because he supposedly had an itch somewhere he could not reach.

Robinson testified on Friday that her former boss had a short fuse and often used derogatory language.

“He called Jane Rosenthal, his business partner, a c–t,” she claimed.

Robinson also alleged that De Niro was stingy about allowing her to take vacations or time off — even though he often frequently forgot his own schedule and even milestones like anniversaries and his children’s birthdays.

According to De Niro, Robinson shirked her duties to watch Netflix and stole frequent flyer miles from him.
AP

“I would do the same work as if I was working from home or the office,” she said of her job’s demands even when she was scheduled to be away.

Once, she said, she was forced to ditch a run on the Bridle Path in Central Park because De Niro demanded she pick up a baseball glove for his son.

“He wanted to play catch with his son. I stopped running around the Bridle Path in Central Park and raced to Modell’s … because he wanted it right away,” she told the court.

De Niro even had her vet vacation rentals in Montauk for him, Robinson claimed.

Graham Chase Robinson worked for De Niro from 2008 through 2019.
Gregory P. Mango

He also had different standards for male and female employees, Robinson alleged Friday.

“Female employees were expected to be on call 24/7 for Bob. He didn’t expect male employees to be on call for him,” she claimed, adding that the A-lister referred to his female assistants as “the girls.”

“Male employees could not be available and Bob wouldn’t mind,” she alleged.

In exchange for her round-the-clock loyalty, De Niro splashed out on luxurious gifts, including a Rolex watch for her 30th birthday, Robinson said.

“He was very generous when it came to that stuff,” she admitted.

He also helped staff out with hotel stays for sometimes up to 20 days, Robinson said.

But when she approached De Niro about receiving more compensation in December 2018, however, she found her concerns dismissed.

When Robinson asked to receive the same salary as Dan Harvey, De Niro’s personal trainer, the actor supposedly told her, “Chase you don’t have kids. Dan has a family to support.”

Robinson claims that De Niro made her help acclimate his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, to his high-flying lifestyle.
Getty Images for Air Mail/Warner Brothers Discovery

“It made me so sad. It frustrated me, it angered me … I was really hurt by that comment,” Robinson lamented Friday.

“I gave this job my life. I didn’t have kids because I worked.”

The pair eventually agreed on a $300,000 salary, Robinson said, adding that when she eventually resigned, the “Taxi Driver” star gave her the cold shoulder.

“He [said he] would give me a bad recommendation,” Robinson alleged.

“He really boasted about his name on a resume is payment enough.”

Robinson’s claims came just one day after Chen — who gave birth to her and De Niro’s daughter, Gia, earlier this year — testified that the former assistant was “striving to be” De Niro’s wife.

“She’s a mean, insecure, territorial girl,” Chen insisted on the stand.

The tension with Robinson eventually forced Chen to give De Niro an ultimatum.

“If you keep her, you and I will eventually have problems,” Chen texted De Niro around 2:30 a.m. in March 2019, according to records presented to the court.

Chen also brushed off the gushing text messages she sent to Robinson thanking her for her work in 2018 as “sarcastic.”

Under cross-examination, Chen clarified that she thought Robinson was after a relationship with De Niro’s “credit card” and “not him.”

In court on Friday, however, Robinson testified that she felt “targeted” by Chen.

“I felt like I was being given impossible tasks by her. I felt like I was constantly being given demeaning jobs,” she alleged.

“I kept on working and working and all the work was really creating this chaos for me. I couldn’t sleep; I would wake up thinking what I had to do for the townhouse, what I had to do for Tiffany for the day.”

De Niro and Robinson have both sued one another for alleged infractions during their 11-year working relationship.
AP

Robinson started working for De Niro in 2008. In her lawsuit, she claims that she was “forced to resign” from the six-figure gig in April 2019.

Her resignation email — which was read in court — claimed that she had been “loyal, protective (to the point of alienating others), honest and beyond hard-working (80-90 hour weeks).”

“I poured my heart and soul into this job and as a result other parts of my life and opportunities were put on hold. You always came first,” she wrote.

De Niro’s own suit, however, claims that Robinson really quit because “suspicions arose” regarding her  “honesty, integrity, work ethic and motivation.”

In over three years since leaving Canal Productions, Robinson has applied to 638 jobs, she testified Friday — but has not gotten an interview at a single one.

She now suffers from depression and anxiety, struggles to sleep and avoids going outside and lives at home with her mother, Robinson added.

“I’ve lost my life. I‘ve lost my career. I’ve lost my financial independence. I’ve lost everything,” she lamented.

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