Robert De Niro and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen may be basking in baby joy right now after the birth of the Oscar-winner's seventh child, daughter Gia Virginia, but their little-known relationship has also been marred by a complicated lawsuit with his former employee.
Back in 2019, the actor and his company Canal Productions sued former assistant and VP Graham Chase Robinson for $6 million. Among other things, the Oscar winner accuses Robinson of binge-watching Friends while on the job.
In turn, Robinson filed a counter lawsuit against both De Niro and Canal, citing a toxic work culture against women at the production company, where she held the role of vice president of production and finance.
MORE: Robert De Niro, 79, talks baby number eight just weeks after welcoming seventh child
Four years later, the legal battle between the two is far from over, and a newly unveiled judgment ruling first detailed by Puck unearths not only Robinson's estranged relationship with De Niro but her alleged feud with Chen as well.
The documents reveal that growing tension between Chen and Robinson was largely what led to the latter's acrimonious departure.
MORE: Robert De Niro, Tiffany Chen party in Cannes after welcoming baby – what we know about her so far
During their fall out, Chen accused the former De Niro employee of disconnecting all the chargers on her side of the bed in the home she shares with the actor. She went so far as to describe the increasingly tense situation between them as "very 'Single White Female,'" in reference to the 1992 movie about an obsessive roommate.
© GettyEventually, Robinson used a colleague's email account to confirm her suspicions that Chen had asked for her work be decreased, particularly anything inside De Niro's home – which led to her resignation.
MORE: Meet the Celebrity OAPs (Old Age Papas): Al Pacino, Robert De Niro & more
Her use of another employee's email and subsequent resignation quickly led to an investigation on behalf of De Niro's attorney Tom Harvey, who claims it resulted in the discovery that Robinson transferred approximately five million Delta SkyMiles into a personal account.
© GettyThough she was the one to quit, her resignation was followed by a lengthy battle over her exit, and the severance package she was hoping for: two years of her annual $300,000 salary and health coverage.
The court documents reveal that neither De Niro nor Chen were pleased about the ongoing situation, with a text message from Chen reading: "She thought she was your wife. I saw it from the beginning. I told you," to which De Niro replied: "The balls, the nerve, the chutzpah, the sense of entitlement: how dare her!"
© GettyBoth sides scrambled to sue each other, with De Niro first filing a complaint in state court, though when Robinson brought her own complaints against him, they landed themselves in yet another lengthy battle over which case could move forward first.
Ultimately, albeit four years later, both sides' complaints will be heard by a jury when they go to court in October.
