ENTHUSIASM CURBED

Cheryl Hines’ Former Podcast Co-Host Reveals How She Changed After RFK Jr. Campaign

The comedian said she “never heard from” Hines again after a 2023 conversation.

Tig Notaro is getting candid about why she no longer speaks to onetime friend Cheryl Hines.

The comedian says she stopped hearing from the Curb Your Enthusiasm star in 2023, after years of friendship, because the pair disagreed over Hines’ husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I didn’t sever the friendship, but I did notice that once [Kennedy] was running for president and once I stepped away from our old podcast, I never heard from her again,” Notaro said on Tuesday’s episode of the Handsome Podcast, which she hosts with comedians Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin.

Notaro, 54, and Hines, 60, co-hosted the podcast Tig & Cheryl: True Story from 2020 to 2023. They stopped releasing new episodes in December 2023, seven months after Kennedy, 71, announced his campaign for president. Notaro has previously said she stepped away from the podcast because she could not support Kennedy’s politics.

“Cheryl was one of my favorite friends,” Notaro explained during an October episode of the podcast Breaking Bread with Tom Papa, adding that her friendship with Hines predates the actress’ 2014 wedding to Kennedy.

“But Cheryl’s married to Bobby Kennedy Jr. 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.”

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Now, Notaro is sharing the details of one of her final conversations with Hines. “She and I had a four-hour conversation, and she went through different issues and encouraged me to sit down with Bobby,” the comedian said on Tuesday. “I was like, ‘Let me think on this,’ then I woke up and was like, ‘No thank you.’”

Though the pair stopped speaking shortly after that conversation, Notaro said they continued to exchange pleasantries over text throughout the campaign.

“I continued to reach out to Cheryl, and say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you,’... and she would respond very pleasantly and friendly,” explained Notaro.

“I was open to ‘Hey, let’s remain friendly.’ I cared about Cheryl. I care about Cheryl. That doesn’t change. But it’s hard to pretend like it’s weird that anyone’s confused, because it’s a real about-face.”

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Notaro went on to say that while she initially tried to preserve the friendship, she eventually had to “draw a line” after realizing Hines’ politics were aligned with her husband’s.

“There’s a lot of issues that I do not believe in, that [Kennedy] is endorsing, that Cheryl is clearly endorsing,” she told Feimster and Martin.

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Hines initially remained mum on her husband’s politics during his presidential campaign. However, she became more vocal in her support after Kennedy joined the Trump administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services in February.

Just last month, Hines publicly defended her husband’s most controversial stances during a tense appearance on The View. Though she described herself as “not a political person,” she stood by her husband’s anti-vaccine policies and his scientifically unfounded assertion that Tylenol causes autism.

In the same week, Hines appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime, where she told the host that she considered herself to be “just as MAHA” as her husband.

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Notaro made clear on Tuesday’s podcast episode that her friendship with Hines is most likely over for good. However, she shared that she still remembers her former co-host fondly.

“I had a podcast with her, I had a longstanding friendship, she was just a really important person in my life,” said Notaro. “I loved being ridiculous with her.”

Paulina RodriguezBreaking News Intern

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