Strange Things About Robert De Niro And Tiffany Chen's Relationship

Robert De Niro and his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, are a couple that seems to fascinate the public. That could be, in part, because the couple became parents in April 2023 — making De Niro a new dad again just ahead of his 80th birthday. In talking about parenting at a more advanced age with The Guardian, De Niro admitted that Chen does a lot of the work. "It doesn't get easier," he told the outlet of parenting. "It is what it is. It's okay. I mean, I don't do the heavy lifting. I'm there, I support my girlfriend. But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important."

De Niro and Chen met on the set of "The Intern" in 2015. It is rumored that the two began dating not long after and were together before De Niro officially divorced his then-wife Grace Hightower. That start to their relationship may not be that odd, though their status as pet parents is bizarre. Upon taking the stand in November 2023 in a counter lawsuit against De Niro's former personal assistant, Chen said they share 15 dogs in their home, per Business Insider. Although owning over a dozen dogs is already strange enough, there are more interesting things about De Niro and Chen's life together. 

During the aforementioned lawsuit, Robert De Niro's former assistant took the stand and told the court about how De Niro allegedly bragged to staff about the age gap in his romantic relationship. Graham Chase Robinson, the former assistant, said to the court: "[De Niro] alluded to the age difference [with Tiffany Chen] being 30 years and he boasted about that," via the New York Post. At the time of their daughter Gia's birth in 2023, Chen was 45 years old and De Niro was 79 years old. It seems that perhaps that age difference lent itself to difficulties between De Niro and his former personal assistant Robinson. Per Robinson's testimony, Chen's behavior changed drastically when they were alone together.

Robinson's issues with former boss De Niro allegedly began after Chen came into the picture, the former assistant told the court in November 2023. What makes this situation bizarre is that Robinson worked for De Niro for over a decade.  Things got heated to the point that Chen all but demanded De Niro hire a new assistant, it was revealed during the lawsuit. A series of late-night text messages from Chen to De Niro were also shown in court, including "If you keep her, you and I will eventually have problems" and "I'm not gonna be happy until you tell me she is looking for her replacement," the New York Post reported.

Aside from the fact that Robert De Niro has admitted that his girlfriend Tiffany Chen does much of the actual care of their daughter Gia, their identities as parents are also so bizarrely different. For Chen, Gia is her first biological child. But for De Niro, Gia is kiddo number seven. More than that, now in his 80s, De Niro is also a grandfather. That isn't surprising as the actor's eldest child is over half a century older than Gia. Not to mention that even his grandchildren are all older than Gia, which makes the family roles quite different indeed. 

"The kids all get a big kick out of [Gia]," De Niro told People. "The grandkids even. She's their aunt — [and] they're about to be teenagers!" Despite this staggering role difference, the couple had people talking shortly after Gia's birth, when they were spotted by the Daily Mail leaving a fertility clinic in Manhattan. They have not spoken publicly about wanting more children together or not.