Cheryl Hines’s decision to stand by her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during both his campaign for the White House and his endorsement of Donald Trump lost her a longtime friend and collaborator.
“Cheryl was one of my favorite friends,” comedian Tig Notaro said on the Breaking Bread With Tom Papa podcast this week.
Hines and Notaro hosted their own podcast together, Tig & Cheryl: True Story, from 2020 to 2023. “But Cheryl’s married to Bobby Kennedy Jr.,” Notaro explained. “When he was announcing his run, I just felt like I needed to step away, because there are beliefs that were like a gnat on the arm years ago that were getting further into the spotlight.”
The Curb Your Enthusiasm star married Kennedy in 2014. Their union hadn’t always posed a problem for Notaro and Hines’ friendship.
“My friendship with Cheryl predated her marriage to Bobby,” Notaro said. “He was in environmental law. And, again, other beliefs he had were like a gnat on my arm. But then it started to grow, and Cheryl wanted me to hear Bobby out. They had these good ideas, and I was like, ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’ I just didn’t trust it.” It got worse, Notaro said. “Then he endorsed Trump, and then it just got hard.”
Hines remained mum on her political stances when Kennedy launched his campaign for president in 2023, though she took heat from fans and industry peers for his wild conspiracy theories and spreading of COVID misinformation. When Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump last year, however, that heat grew hotter, as onlookers wondered where she stood politically. Hines swatted away critics by saying she and Kennedy “don’t always agree.”
“When somebody is like, ‘Oh we don’t agree on everything’ within a marriage, that is so vague,” Notaro said.
Hines framed her stance on Kennedy’s Trump endorsement as basic spousal support. She remained visibly by his side when he assumed the Health Secretary post in Trump’s cabinet, where he remains highly criticized by decades-long members of the CDC, who he axed and replaced with vaccine skeptics.
The star finally revealed in her Tuesday appearance on The View that her stances do not stray far from her husband’s, as she parroted his vaccine skepticism and spun his stance on Tylenol for pregnant women. Notaro said she’s now taken a “hard pass” on furthering the friendship.
“It’s not my world,” she said. “You’re okaying a particular ride for this country to go on.” Notaro looks back fondly on the friendship and the ex-friends’ podcast, on which they’d discuss a new documentary every week. “It’s really sad, because it did bring me so much joy,” she concluded, “And Cheryl did bring me so much joy.”
For more, listen to Tog Notaro on The Last Laugh podcast.
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