Robert De Niro’s former top executive assistant said she found it “creepy” when the actor insisted she scratch his back, an example of behavior she found controlling and abusive before she quit her job in 2019, she testified Friday at a New York civil trial.
The former employee has accused Mr. De Niro of gender discrimination and retaliation; his company accused her of improper spending and abusing her work privileges.
Ms. Robinson, 41, who often goes by Chase, started working for Mr. De Niro as an executive assistant at 25, ultimately becoming vice president of production and finance at Canal Productions before resigning, in 2019. Despite her promotions and conversations about her interest in moving more toward film production work, Mr. De Niro continually assigned her the work of an assistant, she testified, saying, “I felt all the jobs I was given were having to take care of people, to take care of the house.”
In a full day of testimony, Graham Chase Robinson became emotional several times as she claimed that the trauma she endured before she quit working for De Niro.
“I was having an emotional and mental breakdown. I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. Couldn’t run. I was overwhelmed,” she told jurors in Manhattan federal court. “I felt like I hit rock bottom.”
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She said she suffers from anxiety and depression and hasn’t worked in four years despite applying for 638 jobs.
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“I don’t have a social life,” she said. “I’m so humiliated and embarrassed and feel so judged. I feel so damaged in a way. … I lost my life. Lost my career. Lost my financial independence. I lost everything.”
Robinson is seeking $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 duty grounds.
Robinson said the back-scratching had occurred several times over the years until she offered a mild protest once, suggesting to De Niro that there was a device he could use instead.
During testimony earlier in the week, De Niro scoffed at the back-scratching claim and other assertions, saying he always treated Robinson with respect and never with “disrespect or lewdness.”
He also claimed he never yelled at her just before he did in court, shouting: “Shame on you, Chase Robinson!” He quickly apologized for the outburst.
Robinson said part of her duties that required her to be available around the clock included helping De Niro navigate a complicated love life that at one point involved a wife, an ex-girlfriend and a new girlfriend that he didn’t want the world to yet know about.
Robinson portrayed De Niro in her testimony as sexist with his language toward female employees and discriminatory in how he paid them.
