“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Cheryl Hines says her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ability to attract ill will is contagious.
Hines on Thursday appeared on the “Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald” podcast to promote her “Unscripted” memoir. The old pals discussed their nearly 30-year friendship, as well as the way attitudes toward Hines have changed since her controversial husband became the Trump administration’s secretary of Health and Human Services in February.
According to Hines, her Hollywood friends weren’t sure what to think when Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would run for president. That ended in August 2024 with the political scion suspending his campaign to endorse Republican candidate Trump.
Trump in turn made Kennedy — whose views on medicine, and vaccines in particular, tend to be way outside the mainstream — his top man at HHS.
Friends of Hines, including her former podcast partner Tig Notaro, have since decided the 60-year-old actor’s ties to MAGA make maintaining a relationship with her untenable. Hines said she found that reaction surprising and difficult, but understood the connection.
“I don’t want people having feelings about my friends being friends with me. You know what I mean?” Hines asked rhetorically. “I don’t want to bring anything bad into someone else’s life.”
According to Hines, Kennedy saw that happening in her life too.
“People hate me so much, they are starting to hate you and I feel really bad about it and I don’t want that for you,” Hines recalled her husband saying.
Hines said she knows people who feel she should divorce Kennedy over his politics, though she describes herself as a “family-oriented person” who still thinks her husband would be a good president.
“He’s very, very smart, he’s a great leader and he’s a graceful person,” she said.
An Oct. 9 poll published by health polling resource KFF found 59% of Americans disapprove of Kennedy’s performance as health secretary.