As Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismantles our health infrastructure, you have to wonder how his wife Cheryl Hines’s Hollywood friend group is feeling about her MAGA makeover. Eight months and one disastrous The View interview for Hines into RFK Jr.’s tenure, it appears at least one domino has fallen. On Tuesday, during an appearance on the podcast Breaking Bread With Tom Papa, comedian Tig Notaro — a longtime friend of Hines who once hosted a podcast with her — admitted she’s taking some space from their friendship.
“Cheryl was one of my favorite friends to be ridiculous with, and we made each other laugh so hard,” Notaro said. “But Cheryl’s married to Bobby Kennedy Jr. When he was announcing his run [for president in 2023], 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.”
“My friendship with Cheryl predated her marriage to Bobby,” she continued. “But then [his beliefs] started to grow, and Cheryl wanted me to hear Bobby out … and I was like, ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’ I just didn’t trust it. And then he endorsed Trump, and then it just got hard.”
While Notaro didn’t specify which particular “beliefs” worried her, RFK Jr. has spent many years touting widely debunked anti-vaxx theories — and that was before he was tasked with overseeing the country’s major health initiatives. In 2015, he issued an apology after comparing the number of children harmed by vaccines to the Holocaust. He made yet another Holocaust comment in 2022, when he compared the plight of anti-vaxxers to that of Jews who lived in Nazi Germany. Now that Trump has unleashed him on our health system, he’s tripled down on spewing misinformation about vaccines, including repeating the widely debunked conspiracy theory that they cause autism in children.
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Hines, known mostly for her starring role in Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, married Kennedy in 2014, and while she was once a registered Democrat — and has occasionally tried to distance herself from his most outrageous claims — she’s spent this year tiptoeing into the role of MAGA wife. Earlier this week, she regurgitated her husband’s favorite anti-vaxx talking points on The View and insisted that he, a man with no medical background, has actually spent many years “studying people’s health.”
“When somebody is like, ‘Oh we don’t agree on everything’ within a marriage, that is so vague,” Notaro said of Hines’s relationship with Kennedy. For example, Notaro joked that she and her wife, Stephanie Allynne, can’t agree on the thermostat temperature in their bedroom — not the efficacy of childhood vaccinations or whether it’s appropriate to reference Anne Frank at an anti-vaxx rally. “It’s not my world. It’s a hard pass,” Notaro added of her long-gone friendship. “You’re okaying a particular ride for this country to go on.”
When Papa noted that he missed the women’s podcast dynamic, Notaro agreed: “It’s really sad, because … Cheryl did bring me so much joy.” But she said she’s ready to get back to “prioritizing people that bring me joy.” Lucky for Hines, she has an exciting new social circle to pick from. I hear Usha Vance could use a gal pal?
