Tiffany Chen, the woman who is dating Academy Award–winning actor Robert De Niro and who recently gave birth to the 79-year-old actor’s seventh child, is speaking up about a terrifying postpartum problem that she experienced.
CBS Mornings published a preview clip of Chen’s interview with Gayle King on Thursday. In the film, the 45-year-old actress says that she was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a medical disease that causes facial paralysis, shortly after the birth of her and De Niro’s daughter, Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro, in April. The interview will air on Friday.
“By the time I got back to my house, I had the feeling that something was off with my tongue. It had a tingling sensation and was just beginning to feel numb when I suddenly became aware that my face had an odd sensation to it, as Chen explains to King. “I could not place the sensation that I was having; all I knew was that it was strange.”
She goes on to state that she noticed a change in her face at the moment, and she describes it as follows: “Everything was starting to fall down on itself, like, my face was melting on itself.” The symptoms began to manifest themselves exactly one week after I had given birth, at which point I contacted my physician. I was making an attempt to eat. I went to put some food in my mouth with a fork, but it all came flying out instead. I had no appetite at all. And I was beginning to slur my words. As a result, I declared, “There is really something going on here.” They instructed us to “immediately report to the hospital.” I was admitted, and the moment I stepped foot in the hospital, I was completely unable to move any part of my face.”
The Bell’s palsy condition is described as “a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face,” as stated by the Mayo Clinic. In the vast majority of cases, the weakness is only temporary and will show considerable improvement over the course of a few weeks. The weakening gives the appearance that half of the face is sagging. Only one side of the face smiles at a time, and the eye on the unaffected side refuses to close. Nobody knows for sure what caused it.
Initially, Mr. De Niro said that he and Ms. Chen had become parents in May of 2023. He used the opportunity to correct an ET Canada interviewer who had previously stated that Mr. De Niro was already a father of six children by saying, “I just had a baby.”
Later, a representative for De Niro confirmed the good news to Entertainment Tonight (ET).
A few days later, on CBS Mornings, King presented the world with its first look at the daughter of Robert De Niro and Tiffany Chen. King also disclosed that the baby girl will be called Virginia, after Robert De Niro’s mother.
De Niro is also the father of Drena, 51, and Raphael, 46, who he shares with his ex-wife Diahnne Abbott. Additionally, he shares the parenting of Aaron and Julian, who are 27 years old, with his ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith. Together with his ex-wife Grace Hightower, he also has a son, Elliot, who is 25 years old, and a daughter, Helen, who is 11 years old.
The entirety of Chen’s conversation with Gayle King will be broadcast this coming Friday on CBS Mornings.