Cheryl Hines isn‘t letting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reported infidelities dampen her spirits, and she waved off the backlash against her for her husband’s embrace of Donald Trump’s MAGA politics by saying, “There’s nothing I can do about it, so I have to let it wash over me.”
Hines was speaking to entertainment reporters at the Groundlings 50th Anniversary event in Los Angeles Saturday night, telling them she was “feeling good” and relying on her love “connection” with Kennedy to help them weather the various controversies around them. The controversies include her 70-year-old husband’s alleged, year-long sexting affair with political reporter Olivia Nuzzi and recent claims that he vowed to “impregnate” the journalist.
“There’s, like, a connection that you look at your husband or your partner and all the crazy going on around you, or you look and you check in and it’s like, ‘OK. It’s going to be OK,’” Hines told Us Weekly, which noted that she was wearing her wedding ring. “We’re going to move through this moment. And, you know, a lot of times it’s funny, and you can lean over and say, ‘This is crazy balls,’ and have a moment together and then hold your head up high and go to the next thing.”
As for the Nov. 5 election, and her husband’s decision to end his polarizing independent presidential campaign, break with his famous Democratic family, endorse the even more polarizing Trump and consider a job in his White House, Hines acknowledged to Us Weekly that people “have a lot of feelings about politics, especially in Hollywood.”
Hines told People magazine: “The end is near. And I feel very peaceful about it. 17 days, actually. But yeah, let’s say it’s 16. Every day, I Google it. You think I could remember from the day before. Every day, the countdown.”
With Hines’ comments at the Groundlings anniversary and her recent appearances by Kennedy’s side, the 59-year-old actor appears to want the world to know that she has no intention of filing for divorce. Reports began circulating last month that she was considering divorce after her 70-year-old husband was implicated in a “personal relationship” with the 31-year-old Nuzzi, who had profiled the notorious anti-vaccine campaigner for New York magazine last year. Another report said that Hines was fed up with her husband’s embrace of Trump’s MAGA politics and its impact on her Hollywood career.
In recent weeks, Kennedy’s alleged indiscretions with Nuzzi have grown even more sordid, though he claimed he only met Nuzzi once and has tried to portray himself as the victim of a desperate woman’s sexual obsession. Kennedy’s surrogates made this claim even though he’s long had a reputation as a womanizer whose infidelities reportedly contributed to the end of his first two marriages.
Mediaite reported earlier this month that three more women, who are affiliated with his anti-vaccine organization, claimed that they, too, had affairs with the former environmental lawyer over the past year. Then Nuzzi’s ex-fiance, journalist Ryan Lizza, submitted court documents last week, describing the way that Nuzzi opened up to him about her “toxic” affair with Kennedy, the Daily Beast reported.
“She admitted the affair and over the course of weeks of conversations she confided how she fell into what she described as a ‘toxic,’ ‘unhealthy,’ ‘stupid,’ ‘psychotic,’ ‘crazy,’ ‘indefensible’ relationship with a 70-year-old ‘sex addict’ who told her he wanted to ‘possess,’ ‘control,’ and ‘impregnate” her,’” Lizza wrote in court documents, which were submitted in response to Nuzzi’s claims that he tried to blackmail her into staying with him.
After Nuzzi admitted to editors at New York magazine that she had a “personal relationship” with Kennedy while covering the 2024 presidential race, she was put on leave from her job as the magazine’s Washington, D.C., correspondent. She has alleged that Lizza was the source of leaks about the alleged affair and has sought a restraining order against him.
In her interviews at the Groundlings event, Hines, a notable alum of the Groundlings improv program, expressed an unwillingness to concern herself with Nuzzi’s personal issues or how they may reflect on her husband’s character.
Hines also has put on a show of unity with her husband at two recent high-profile events. She held her embattled husband’s hand as they attended the funeral last week of his mother, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, at a church near the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Then, last Thursday night, Hines and Kennedy were among the movers and shakers attending a marquee charity gala in New York City. At the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Hines and Kennedy laughed, kissed and “engaged in PDA” in front of the elite crowd, who included Trump and his wife Melania Trump, who were seated nearby, the Daily Beast reported.
“Listen, I, I‘m feeling good,” Hines told People at the Groundlings party. With Us Weekly, she humorously discussed how she and her husband deal with “rumors.”
“Lots of emotions with rumors! But it will all be in my book,” Hines quipped. “I’m writing a book. I’ve been taking notes — serious notes!”
Hines also talked about her “fun” family, either meaning her husband and the children they share from previous marriages or the famous Kennedy family she married into.
“I mean, if I had a boring family it would be tough,” Hines said. “And I think just trying to embrace the unknown and instead of fighting against it, sort of trying to embrace it and just say yes to whatever comes your way. Just to let it flow and to find the little moments and not take anything too seriously. Even though I find myself in very serious situations!”
