Cheryl Hines admits she’s experienced “a lot of darkness” over the past few years.
The actress has come under fire for her choice to support her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of America’s most divisive men.
She lost friends and didn’t speak to her “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star Larry David “for a long time” as members of her husband’s famous family publicly criticized Kennedy.
And, of course, she had to face his alleged online infidelity, a melodrama embarrassment that shows no signs of slowing down.
While much of this was going on, Hines also had to deal with the devastating loss of her 20-year-old nephew Michael, who had cerebral palsy and passed away in May 2024.
“I went through a lot of darkness, and it wasn’t just because of politics,” Hines, 60, exclusively told Page Six. “I lost my nephew last year, which was very heartbreaking, and I had a dark time dealing with that loss while this new turmoil was going on.
“But I’m definitely entering a new chapter that I never predicted I’d be in.”
It’s a completely unexpected situation for a woman who grew up in a trailer in Tallahassee, Fla., and went on to star in an Emmy Award-winning TV drama.
Hines’ new memoir, “Unscripted,” details much of that, including why she chose to be with her husband, 71, who is now the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
She said: “People ask me why I stay married to him.
“Bobby, and being his wife, there are extremes on both sides, because there are so many people who really love and support him, and no matter what he accomplishes, there are still people who criticize him,” Hines said.
“And I thought it was important for me to say this. This is why I love him. This is who he is as a person and who we are to each other. If I just speak the truth about what I’ve been through…it makes me feel better because it’s my own words and they can’t be misinterpreted.”
Mr. Hines first met Mr. Kennedy, the son of Ethel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, at a 2004 ski trip fundraiser organized by Mr. Kennedy, who, like Mr. Kennedy, was deeply involved in environmental activism. At the time, the political scion was married to his second wife, and Hines was married to her first husband, a film producer.
When they met again six years later, there was no attachment, Hines wrote. “From the moment we started talking, I felt like I was struck by lightning. I don’t know how I missed him before his eyes were so blue. I felt his magnetism, and since then he has told me that he felt the same way.”
The two married in 2014 at Ethel’s famous estate in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
But last fall, journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s ex-fiancée claimed that he had been having an affair with Kennedy for nearly a year after Nuzzi interviewed Kennedy for New York Magazine.
Hynes learned the news while on holiday in Italy with the children of a previous relationship, including her daughter Catherine, 21, and said: “I had to let my weakness out until I was alone…The swirl of headlines, rumors and innuendo left me shaken and overwhelmed. I hit a wall.”
She ended up staying in Europe “for a while” and returned to meet Kennedy, who they met in a car while private security guards watched.
“I felt so far away from him. The only thread connecting me to him seemed to be directly connected to all of our children…I respected and loved them so much that I couldn’t listen to Bobby.”
Over the next few days, we stopped everything and dug for the truth…Through these soul-searching days, we strengthened our bond. ” she writes.
President Kennedy has denied any sexual or romantic relationship with Nuzzi, who also accused him this week of having an affair with former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.
Asked how she’s coping now, with Mr. Nuzzi’s upcoming book, which includes a New York Times interview and Vanity Fair excerpts revealing intimate details about Mr. Kennedy, dominating the news cycle, Ms. Hines would only say, “I stay focused on my life, my family, what I’m accomplishing, what I’m doing, so I have to block out the chatter. And…the chatter outside is sometimes so loud and overwhelming.”
It’s clear that Hines has a spine of steel, as she writes that she “drives a dilapidated Tercel from Florida to Los Angeles to pursue her acting dreams.” She worked in bars for many years and said she nearly went bankrupt as she auditioned and studied with the Groundlings comedy troupe before landing her breakthrough role in Curve at age 37. She was initially told it was a one-off special and was surprised when HBO picked it up. series.
In April 2023, Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, changed her life again when she announced her intention to run for president.
After Kennedy’s father was assassinated in 1968 while also running for president, and five years after his uncle John F. Kennedy was killed while in office, a law was passed giving the Secret Service protection for qualified candidates within 120 days of the general election.
Hines feared for her husband’s safety from the beginning.
“The fact that he didn’t have Secret Service protection[initially]when he was a presidential candidate is unacceptable,” she told Page Six. “At that time, I kept my shoes on until I was ready to go to bed, because I didn’t know what was going to happen. And then I got a call saying, ‘Someone showed up to the meeting with a loaded gun and wanted to see Bobby.’ I was really worried.”
In October 2023, intruders were arrested twice on the same day for illegally entering Hines and Kennedy’s Los Angeles homes.
Two days after the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Biden announced that the Secret Service would protect President Kennedy.
On July 16, 2024, when Kennedy, who was still campaigning as an independent at the time, met with Trump, Hines was in the same room.
“He had a bandage on his ear, and it reminded me of how close the bullet was to his temple. It really hit me that something could happen in an instant that changed everything. And I also knew that Bobby was campaigning every day, just like President Trump…” Hines said.
“They were talking about life and death situations, what it means. So when I came out of that meeting, my body went crazy and I broke out in hives.”
Things got tense that night, Hines recalled, when Kennedy tried to discuss the idea of leaving and supporting Trump.
“They connected on many levels and had common goals they wanted to achieve,” she said. But “it was all very stressful, and I had to go to emergency room because my lip started to swell and I was worried I was going to choke.”
Hines feels the amount of intense public criticism from Kennedy’s family, including some with whom she previously felt very close, has been compounded.
Shortly after Kennedy announced he would run as an independent, four of his brothers said his candidacy was “dangerous to our country.”
In January, when President Trump announced Kennedy’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, his cousin Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, publicly called Kennedy a “predator.”
“It was very hard because I love Bobby’s family and I spent a lot of time with them and they meant a lot to me,” Hines said. “When Bobby started running, it was understandable when they made it clear they weren’t supporting his candidacy. But when they spoke out publicly criticizing him, it further increased the security risk he was taking. And I found that very upsetting.”
So where does Hines himself stand on some of Kennedy’s most controversial views, including those on vaccine science?
“One of the things I really wanted to say in this book is that I don’t think we need to politicize health,” she told Page Six. “And it’s not black and white. For me anyway…I thought it was important to say, ‘Let’s take a breath and let’s listen to each other and not criticize each other.'”
Hines, who is registered as an independent, admitted that she spends more time these days in Washington, D.C., than in Los Angeles, where she has lived for many years.
“There’s a lot of passionate people there,” Hines, a registered independent, said of Los Angeles. “And once Bobby started being very outspoken about vaccines, that started conversations with my friends and I. So some of them — but not all of them — wanted to ask me questions about Bobby. And some of my friends felt like I was being pushy. But I never had a fight where someone said, ‘That’s it. I’m not going to talk to you anymore.’
“But I felt my friends slipping away,” she admitted. “At the same time, I have friends who play poker with me in Los Angeles, and nothing has changed.”
One old friend she hasn’t heard from in a while is her “Curve” co-star David, who is known to support Democrats and called President Trump a “sociopath.”
“Larry has always been a good friend, and I know he is very passionate about politics,” Hines said. “So I haven’t talked to him in a long time, but I can only imagine that he probably has a lot of feelings about how things are going.”
But Hines is learning to embrace the positive things in life.
“I learn something new every day. I never thought I would learn so much about politics, but I have. And it’s actually very gratifying to learn new things,” she said. “I feel like I’m in a place right now where I understand what’s going on in my life. I feel strong and ready. And I’m having a really good time with the people around me.”
