Celebrities are spotted doing this and that with each other all the time. Paparazzi do their often harassing work to get snaps and reveal who's with who, and it intrigues us.
But when Cuba Gooding Jr. was spotted with Claudine De Niro, it wasn't so much as intriguing as it was appalling. That sighting turned into a nasty abuse scandal, which has defamed Gooding Jr. and damaged his career. But Claudine isn't completely innocent herself.
So how did Gooding Jr. meet Claudine, and what happened to their relationship? Read on to find out.
Who Is Claudine De Niro?
No, she's not Robert De Niro's daughter, if that's what you were thinking. Claudine was previously married to the iconic actor's son, Raphael De Niro, a celebrity real estate broker. They met when they worked as associate brokers at Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York. After they got married, they worked together in the De Niro Group and later had three children. Unfortunately, they separated in 2015, and Raphael filed for divorce in 2016.
According to The Heavy, Claudine and Gooding Jr. met while they were going through divorces. Gooding Jr. filed for divorce from his wife of 20 years, Sara Kapfer, in 2018. Page Six reported that he and Claudine had been linked since October 2018 after being spotted together at celebrity spot Acme. At the time, sources told Page Six, "I wouldn’t say they are dating, but they are hooking up."
They were seen together at Art Basel Miami, where another source told Page Six, "She was on his arm. They looked to be very much a couple."
In June 2019, Claudine was spotted FaceTiming Gooding Jr. during a dinner at Jason Liebman’s Soho residence. She told Page Six she "was on a business call with the Oscar winner about Steam, the movie he’s directing," and continued to reveal that she was focusing more on the film business than real estate.
Days later, she was allegedly with Gooding Jr. inside Magic Hour Rooftop Bar at the Moxy Hotel in New York City, but the night didn't turn out too well for Gooding Jr.
A woman approached them, and according to court papers, "[Gooding] then made a sexually suggestive remark to this woman … placed his hand on this woman’s left breast, without her consent, and squeezed her breast."
As you can probably guess, Gooding Jr. faced some assault charges. On a surveillance video, Claudine was sitting between Gooding Jr. and the accuser when the incident happened. However, he pleaded not guilty in court to the June 2019 incident and an earlier incident in 2018, where he pinched a woman's backside inside TAO Downtown Nightclub on Oct. 24, 2018. He "claimed that he had only pinched her back, not her buttocks."
After these cases surfaced, 12 other women came forward to accuse Gooding Jr. of assault, with some dating back as far as 2001. Yet, even after all this, reports back in 2020 claimed the pair were still dating.
In January 2020, Claudine's Divorce Was Finalized
After leaving De Niro, Claudine didn't just add film producer to her resume; she also added "Luxury Travel Consultant."
She started working for In The Know Experiences, offering "hotels, villas, yachts, jets, VIP events & tickets & everything else along the way," and calls herself a "professional traveler."
In early 2020, her divorce from De Niro was finalized, and according to another report from Page Six, she was still seeing Gooding Jr. In fact, she'd consistently been caught with him all over, including Miami, and the Hamptons, despite Gooding Jr. going through multiple sexual assault cases.
According to Fox, this isn't the first time Claudine has been entangled in a scandal. Before "hooking up" with Gooding Jr., she faced a lawsuit herself in 2017 by her former nanny. According to the nanny, Claudine had forgone paying her, but the case later changed to focus on the allegations of another nanny, who claimed Claudine had fired her "based on discriminatory motives and biases." The nanny, Linda Williams, also claimed Claudine had created a "hostile work environment permeated with intimidation, ridicule, and insult."
According to Williams, Claudine allegedly told her in 2014, "I wouldn’t have hired you if I had known you were black." This comes as a surprise because her husband's mother, Diahnne Abbott, is African-American, and Claudine herself is 25% black.
Williams also allegedly said Claudine "has a high rate of [staff] turnover due to the treatment of employees, including nannies, housekeepers, and domestic workers."
So it looks like Claudine and Gooding Jr. will continue to attract lawsuits with the way they're going. No wonder they found so much in common. We're not completely sure the couple (if they ever became a couple) still see each other. A blog called Outtake lists Gooding Jr. and Claudine as participants in an upcoming Pride event held by Stacey Bendet, the CEO & creative director of alice + olivia clothing. But that's all we know. All we can say is Gooding Jr., and Claudine are in deep water as it is, so that's probably why they're laying low.