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Topics: Robert De Niro, US News, Celebrity, Film and TV
Emily Brown
Topics: Robert De Niro, US News, Celebrity, Film and TV
Goodfellas star Robert De Niro has defended himself in court after his former assistant filed a lawsuit claiming she was harassed and overworked.
Graham Chase Robinson filed her lawsuit after she quit being De Niro's assistant in 2019, after 11 years of working for him.
In the suit, Robinson alleged De Niro made sexual jokes in her presence, shouted at her, called her abusive names, and made her do everything from scratching his back to decorating his Christmas tree.
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She is now suing De Niro for $12 million in damages for 'severe emotional distress and reputational harm'; claims De Niro denied in court as 'nonsense'.
The actor, who appeared 'grumpy as he took the stand in Manhattan on Monday (30 October), raised his voice several times during his testimony as he reacted angrily to the claims.
While on the stand, De Niro agreed that he had listed Robinson as his emergency contact and relied on her with tasks, including helping with greeting cards for his children.
However, when asked if he thought Robinson had been a conscientious employee, he quipped: "Not after everything I'm going through now."
De Niro raised his voice when Robinson's lawyer suggested he had bothered her in the early hours of the morning in 2017, when he needed to go to hospital.
"That was one time when I cracked my back falling down the stairs," De Niro said.
When asked why he didn't ask for help from his then-wife, Grace Hightower, De Niro responded: “She was sleeping, I didn’t want to bother her."
De Niro also insisted during the trial that he treated Robinson well after he bought a five-bedroom townhouse in Manhattan and asked her to oversee some of the preparations there.
"It is not like I'm asking for her to go out there and scrape floors and mop the floor. So this is all nonsense," he said.
Robinson has claimed she was on the receiving end of tirades from De Niro, with one such example given in a voicemail included in the lawsuit.
“You f**king don’t answer my calls. How dare you? You’re about to be fired. You’re f**king history,” De Niro said in the recording, which is undated.
“This is bulls**t. How dare you f**king disrespect me? You gotta be f**king kidding me, you spoiled brat! F**k you!”
The court was also shown correspondence between De Niro and his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, who appeared to express suspicion about Robinson's motives.
According to court papers, Chen wrote in one message: "Her possessive manner over the house makes me very uncomfortable, down to having the cable bill and the security system password be [in] her name.
"It’s all very weird and she is not easing up with the weird sh*t either. I do feel it’s getting worse."
"She felt there was something there and she may have been right," De Niro told the court.
When asked further about Chen's relationship with Robinson, De Niro claimed his former assistant had 'disrespected' his girlfriend.
Robinson's lawyers argued their client was never romantically interested in De Niro.
The legal battle came about after De Niro sued Robinson in August 2019, claiming she had watched Netflix while working and stole millions of De Niro’s frequent flyer miles.
De Niro's lawsuit then prompted Robinson to hit back with her own lawsuit two months later.
One of Robinson’s lawyers told the court De Niro 'was a really demanding boss', saying the actor would 'make her life difficult'.
UNILAD has contacted representatives for De Niro for comment.