Robert De Niro’s girlfriend testifies against his ex-assistant in discrimination trial

Los Angeles, Nov 3 (IANS) Hollywood star Robert De Niro’s girlfriend Tiffany Chen arrived at the Manhattan federal court for the gender discrimination trial involving the veteran actor and his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson.

While taking the stand on Thursday, November 2, Tiffany slammed Graham by labeling her “crazy,” “psychotic” and “nuts.”

During her testimony, Tiffany claimed that Graham genuinely believed she was the ‘Goodfellas’ star’s wife. “I now think she believed that. I think that’s what she believes, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“She’s crazy,” the 45-year-old told the judge. “I think she knows she’s not, and that made her angry because she was striving to be,” she added.

Tiffany could not complete her sentence as attorney Herbert McNight cut her off to ask, “Striving to be De Niro’s wife?” To that, Tiffany replied, “Yes.”

Tiffany, who shares a daughter with the Oscar-winning actor, was asked to give a testimony for the ongoing legal battle between the Hollywood icon, his company Canal Productions and Graham after several hostile email and text exchanges between Tiffany, Robert and Graham were previously shown to the jury. In one of the emails, sent at 2 a.m., Tiffany warned Robert, “If you keep her (Graham), you and I will have problems.”

During the fourth day of the trial, Tiffany also confirmed that she pressured Robert to fire Graham in 2018, a year before the latter resigned. “Yeah, I wrote it,” Tiffany said of the text saying, “I’m not going to be happy until you tell me she’s looking for a replacement. Keeping her around is just a slap in my face.”

In another text, Tiffany accused Graham of “possessive manner over the house” which made her “very uncomfortable.” She added, “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.”

Prior to this, De Niro called Graham a “f**king spoiled brat” during his testimony. When Graham’s attorney Andrew Macurdy asked the actor if he yelled at her when she didn’t wake him up in time for an important meeting, he confessed he “berated her.”

However, the 80-year-old actor denied actually yelling at his former assistant, adding, “I’ve raised my voice. I don’t yell. You wanna dispute that? That’s one thing I don’t do.”

Of the gender discrimination allegations, the actor noted, “Every little thing she’s trying to get me on is nonsense! Shame on you, Chase Robinson.” He additionally called the accusations “ridiculous.”

Their legal battle started in 2019 when Robert slapped Graham in a $3 million lawsuit for allegedly raiding his company repository in addition to stealing airline miles.

In her counter lawsuit, Graham is seeking $12 million in damages for severe emotional distress and reputational harm.

–IANS

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