Robert De Niro‘s girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, revealed she faced complications after giving birth to their daughter, Gia.
During an upcoming appearance on CBS Mornings, Chen, 45, recalled experiencing symptoms such as tingling and numbness in her tongue after she came home from the hospital.
“Then I realized, like my face just felt weird. I didn’t know what the feeling was that I was having. It felt weird,” she told Gayle King in a clip shared on Thursday, July 13. “I was trying to eat. I went to put just a fork of food in my mouth, and everything came out. I couldn’t eat. And then I was starting to slur.”
Chen ultimately went to the hospital and was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. “I lost all facial function the minute I got into the hospital,” she revealed.
Bell’s palsy is characterized by sudden weakness in the facial muscles and is often temporary, according to the Mayo Clinic. The exact cause of the condition is unknown.
De Niro, 79, confirmed in May that he and Chen had expanded their family when he corrected a reporter about having seven children instead of six.
The About My Father star, who started dating Chen in 2021, opened up about the new addition during a separate interview with King, 68, that same month.
“I [asked him], ‘Did you want a baby?’ He goes, ‘Yes. This baby is planned,’” the broadcast journalist said on CBS Mornings at the time. “They both wanted this baby, they’re over the moon. She was brought here by love, so he is very psyched and very excited about it.”
King noted that she received permission from De Niro to “break the news” about his newborn’s arrival. “How cute is this baby? Robert De Niro and his partner, that’s Tiffany Chen, are over the moon about this little girl,” she added while showing a photo of Gia one month after her arrival.
De Niro became a father when he welcomed son Raphael with Diahnne Abbott in 1976. He also adopted Abbott’s daughter from a previous relationship before their 1988 split. The Academy Award winner became a dad again when he welcomed twins Julian and Aaron with Toukie Smith via surrogate in 1995.
After exchanging vows with Grace Hightower, De Niro expanded his family with son Elliot in 1998 and daughter Helen in 2011. The pair, however, called it quits in 2018 after two decades of marriage.
“I love my children, just being with them,” he gushed exclusively to Us Weekly in April 2019 while answering a question about fatherhood. “It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s fun and you love your kids, and sometimes you want to kill them! … When you have the good moments, you forget about the ones that weren’t good.”
