Robert De Niro’s company found liable in lawsuit filed by his former personal assistant

NEW YORK — Actor Robert De Niro’s production company has been ordered to pay more than $1.2 million to his former personal assistant after it was learned that the company had been involved in gender discrimination and retaliation, according to The Associated Press.

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De Niro has not been found personally liable for the abuse, the AP said. His production company, Canal Productions, however, is and is expected to pay De Niro’s former personal assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, two payments of $632,142.

A jury did not find Robinson liable for the claims her former employer made against her, the New York Times reported.

De Niro, 80, did appear on three of the days of the trial that last two weeks, the AP reported. Two of those days were reportedly spent on the witness stand. De Niro has been facing lawsuits with Robinson since she quit in April 2019.

Robinson, 41, reportedly testified that De Niro and his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, had teamed up against her, the AP said. Both Chen and De Niro testified that Robinson became an issue when she had planned to move beyond the production company and her demands to remain with the company had escalated. De Niro told the jury that he increased Robinson’s salary from $100,000 to $300,000 and changed her job title even though her job duties remained the same. When Robinson quit, De Niro claimed that she stole $85,000 in airline miles and had betrayed his trust.

Robinson claimed that she was given “stereotypically female” job responsibilities, according to the Times. Those jobs included she said washing his sheets and attending to his house.

“I kept on being given these jobs and objecting to them, objecting to wanting to be involved in setting up his home,” Robinson testified, according to the Times. “You do that with your girlfriend. Do that with your wife. You don’t do that with your female V.P. of production.”

She claimed that she quit her job while she was going through an “emotional and mental breakdown,” the AP reported. She also said she had anxiety and depression after she quit her job. She reportedly also hasn’t had a job in four years and she has even applied to over 600 jobs.

“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.”

De Niro’s lawyers reportedly then sued her for “breach of loyalty and fiduciary duty” before she filed her own lawsuit in 2019, the AP reported. They wanted $6 million in damages that included the return of 5 million airline miles.

De Niro was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read Thursday, according to the AP.

De Niro has two Oscar awards and starred in films including “Raging Bull” and “The Deer Hunter.” According to the AP, he is in the Martin Scorsese film “Killers of the Flower Moon” which is now in theaters.

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Through the years LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 20: The movie "The Godfather: Part II", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel 'The Godfather' by Mario Puzo. Seen here, Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone. Initial theatrical wide release December 20, 1974. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) (CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images)