Robert De Niro has described a lawsuit brought against him by his former personal assistant, accusing him of being an abusive boss, as “nonsense.”
The actor testified at a trial on Monday resulting from a lawsuit brought against him by Graham Chase Robinson, who worked for Mr De Niro between 2008 and 2019 before she quit as his vice-president of production and finance after repeated clashes with his girlfriend.
Ms Robinson is suing Mr De Niro for $12m in damages for severe emotional distress and reputational harm.
She said Mr De Niro refused to give her a reference to find another job when she quit in 2019, and since then, she has been unable to find another job.
She also alleged she has been afraid to leave her home since quitting work for Mr De Niro, who, she said, would sometimes yell at her and call her nasty names in behaviour consistent with sexist remarks he made about women generally.
Mr De Niro, 80, raised his voice twice during his testimony as he described his interactions with Ms Robinson during her employment.
The first occasion was when Ms Robinson’s lawyer, Andrew Macurdy, accused Mr De Niro of bothering his client early in the morning to take him to the hospital in 2017.
Mr De Niro said he had listed Ms Robinson as his emergency contact at one point and once called her at 4am or 5am to take him to hospital after he fell down the stairs.
“That was one time when I cracked my back falling down the stairs!” he snapped. He said he delayed calling Ms Robinson for hours after falling down the stairs at 1am or 2am.
He also admitted he had relied on Ms Robinson, who was paid $300,000 annually, to help him with greeting cards for his children and to decorate his Christmas tree.
Meanwhile, asked if Ms Robinson was a conscientious employee, Mr De Niro replied: “Not after everything I’m going through now.”
The actor added that Ms Robinson was well treated, and he allowed her to oversee some of the preparations for the five-bedroom Manhattan townhouse he bought to move into with his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen.
“It is not like I’m asking for her to go out there and scrape floors and mop the floor,” he said. “So this is all nonsense!”
During the course of the trial on Monday, correspondence between Mr De Niro and Ms Chen was shown to jurors which revealed Ms Chen had become increasingly suspicious of Ms Robinson’s motives.
Ms Chen said she thought Ms Robinson acted like she was Mr De Niro’s wife and believed that Ms Robinson had “imaginary intimacy” with Mr De Niro.
“She felt there was something there and she may have been right,” Mr De Niro said of his girlfriend’s suspicions.
Mr De Niro raised his voice for a second time when defending interactions Ms Chen had with Ms Robinson.
“We make decisions together,” he insisted.
Ms Robinson’s lawyer, Mr Macurdy said trouble between the two women began when Ms Chen became jealous that her boyfriend relied on Ms Robinson for so many tasks and that they communicated so well.
Mr Macurdy denied that his client ever had a romantic interest in Mr De Niro.
“None,” he said. “There was never anything romantic between the two of them.”
Mr De Niro’s attorney, Richard Schoenstein described Ms Robinson as “condescending, demeaning, controlling, abusive,” saying she was well treated but “always thought she deserved more”.
“She always played the victim,” he claimed.
Mr Schoenstein added that his client is a “kind, reasonable, generous” man.
Mr De Niro’s company, Canal Productions, is countersuing Ms Robinson.
