The couple welcomed their daughter, Gia Virginia, in April.
Robert De Niro's girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, is opening up about a scary postpartum complication she endured after giving birth to the 79-year-old Oscar-winning actor's seventh child.
On Thursday, CBS Mornings shared a preview clip of Chen's interview with Gayle King, where the 45-year-old reveals that she developed Bell's palsy, a medical condition that causes facial paralysis, after welcoming her and De Niro's daughter, Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro, in April.
"When I went home, I started to feel like my tongue felt strange. It felt a little tingly, just starting to get a little bit numb, and then I realized my face just felt weird," Chen tells King. "I didn't know what the feeling I was having, it just felt weird."
She adds that she could see a difference in her face at the time, saying, "Everything was starting to fall down on itself, like, my face was melting on itself. A week after giving birth, that was when it all hit, and I called my doctor. I was trying to eat. I went to put a fork of food in my mouth and everything came out. I couldn't eat. And I was starting to slur. So I said, 'There's something really going on here.' They said, 'Go right to the hospital.' [They] admitted me, and I lost all facial function the minute I got into the hospital."
According to the Mayo Clinic, Bell's palsy is "a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face. In most cases, the weakness is temporary and significantly improves over weeks. The weakness makes half of the face appear to droop. Smiles are one-sided, and the eye on the affected side resists closing." The exact cause is unknown.
De Niro originally shared the news that he and Chen had welcomed a baby in May 2023, correcting an ET Canada interviewer at the time who said he was a father of six, sharing, "I just had a baby."
A rep for De Niro later confirmed the happy news to ET.
A few days later on CBS Mornings, King shared the first photo of De Niro and Tiffany Chen's daughter. King also revealed that little Virginia is named after De Niro's mother.
De Niro is also parent to Drena, 51, and Raphael, 46, with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott, as well as 27-year-old twin sons, Aaron and Julian, with former girlfriend Toukie Smith. He also shares son Elliot, 25, and daughter Helen, 11, with ex-wife Grace Hightower.
Chen's full interview with Gayle King will air Friday on CBS Mornings.
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