Robert De Niro’s former best govt assistant stated she uncovered it “creepy” when the actor insisted she scratch his back again, an case in point of conduct she discovered controlling and abusive prior to she stop her occupation in 2019, she testified Friday at a New York civil demo.
In a comprehensive day of testimony, Graham Chase Robinson became emotional a number of periods as she claimed that the trauma she endured before she stop functioning for De Niro in 2019 just after 11 years has still left her jobless and frustrated.
“I was acquiring an psychological and mental breakdown. I was not taking in. I was not sleeping. Couldn’t operate. I was overwhelmed,” she advised jurors in Manhattan federal court. “I felt like I hit rock bottom.”
She mentioned she suffers from nervousness and depression and has not worked in four years in spite of implementing for 638 work.
“I do not have a social lifestyle,” she reported. “I’m so humiliated and ashamed and truly feel so judged. I experience so destroyed in a way. … I missing my daily life. Missing my vocation. Dropped my monetary independence. I lost everything.”
Robinson, 41, is in search of $12 million in damages from De Niro, 80, for gender discrimination and retaliation. De Niro has asked a jury to award him $6 million on breach of loyalty and fiduciary obligation grounds.
Robinson mentioned the again-scratching had happened numerous times about the yrs right up until she provided a moderate protest once, suggesting to De Niro that there was a device he could use in its place.
“I like the way that you do it,” she claimed De Niro explained to her.
She described the comment as “creepy” and “disgusting.”
Through testimony previously in the 7 days, De Niro scoffed at the back-scratching declare and other assertions, indicating he often addressed Robinson with regard and never with “disrespect or lewdness.”
He also claimed he hardly ever yelled at her just ahead of he did in courtroom, shouting: “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!” He rapidly apologized for the outburst.
Robert De Niro’s daughter Drena De Niro promises that her son, Leandro, died right after getting fentanyl-laced capsules. The mother of the late 19-12 months-previous weighed in on the conditions bordering his dying on Sunday in a new Instagram remark.
Robinson stated element of her obligations that needed her to be out there all over the clock involved aiding De Niro navigate a challenging adore life that at 1 place associated a spouse, an ex-girlfriend and a new girlfriend that he did not want the earth to however know about.
Robinson portrayed De Niro in her testimony as sexist with his language toward woman employees and discriminatory in how he paid out them.
Her testimony was undercut on cross-evaluation when a lawyer for De Niro confronted her with the actuality that the actor’s optimum-paid employee was a female and that a person who labored for one of De Niro’s businesses, Canal Productions, just like Robinson, was compensated fewer than a 3rd of the $300,000 income she secured prior to she give up.
Robinson testified about several instances when she claimed De Niro, who obtained fame and two Oscars above the earlier 5 a long time in movies like “Raging Bull,” “The Deer Hunter” and the new Martin Scorsese film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” erupted angrily at her, from time to time employing profanity.
All around Christmas of 2017, Robinson stated, an inebriated De Niro named her indignant a person night for the reason that he couldn’t obtain some provides that had been despatched to him from the business for the holiday break.
“He was screaming about not remaining in a position to discover some of the presents,” Robinson claimed. “He was cursing remaining and right.”
He then referred to as her an expletive and hung up, she stated.
She said she discovered it “incredibly hurtful … specifically when you might be just hoping to do your position.”
