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Cheryl Hines opened up about losing friends due to her marriage to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during an appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm alum dived deep into the backlash surrounding her spouse, who went from being a mainstream environmental activist to a controversial member of President Donald Trump’s second administration as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has faced scrutiny for his alleged anti-vaccination views since the 2010s and more recently received bipartisan skepticism for creating a new inverted nutritional pyramid.
“It was interesting to watch people change their attitude about me or [say] I’m not the person they thought I was. [That] type of feeling,” Hines admitted to host Joe Rogan during a three-hour interview published on Tuesday, January 11. “That was strange because I’m still the same person. That was, and still is too, in a sense very strange.”
Some of Hines’ famous friends have publicly distanced themselves from her due to her marriage to RFK Jr. Hines confirmed in December 2025 that she was estranged from Curb Your Enthusiasm costar Larry David while her former “Tig & Cheryl: True Story” cohost Tig Notaro revealed last year that she “stepped away” from their friendship due to Kennedy’s involvement with Trump.
Keep scrolling for more key moments from Hines’ appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
Cheryl Hines Addresses ‘Painful’ Friendship Fallouts
Cheryl Hines’ interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” included her acknowledgement that the public perception of her “changed” when she started dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The couple began dating in 2011 and tied the knot at the Kennedy family’s compound in Cape Cod in August 2024. Hines was previously married to Hollywood manager and producer Paul Young from 2004 to 2010.)
Hines joked that the experience of losing friends was valuable because it proved who “rises to the top.”
“It’s painful though,” Hines conceded. “Also, people that don’t know you, they assume things that aren’t true.”
Cheryl Hines Admits She Underestimated Impact of Marrying a Politician
The I Can See Your Voice judge touched on the way marrying a politician completely transformed how she was viewed by friends and strangers alike.
“I didn’t expect politics to be such a [big] part of my life,” she confessed to Joe Rogan. “I’m still shocked.”
She insisted, “Everything’s good now!”
Still, Hines said there “were times and there still are times” that she grapples with the impact of marrying a divisive politician like Kennedy.
Cheryl Hines Says Her Career Was Unfairly ‘Lumped In’ With Her Husband’s Views
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially ran for president as an independent candidate in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump in August 2024. Cheryl Hines explained to Joe Rogan that “everything changed” — in both her personal and professional life — when Kennedy started taking more contentious political stances.
“My career, my own friends, my decisions got lumped in with that,” Hines argued. “Everything changed. Everything was changing, all day, every day.”
Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Hines compared some political campaigns to a “dumpster fire,” yet she understood why many politicians decide to “run again” after a major defeat.
“Now, I understand why [people run again]. There’s almost this idea of, ‘That’s all you had? You gave your best shot.’ … [Critics] can’t say the same bulls*** over and over,” Hines said. “I’m sure it’s intoxicating for some people. … People like winning.”
Cheryl Hines Says Getting Secret Service Protection Changed Everything
While Hollywood friend fallouts were hurtful, Cheryl Hines said they paled in comparison to concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “safety,” which became the priority for her family in recent years.
“Really, the safety, Bobby’s safety was the most stressful. Every day, all day,” she told Joe Rogan. “Now, he travels with the [U.S.] Marshals.”
Hines reflected on the “crazy” process of getting Secret Service protection as a precautionary measure following Donald Trump being shot during his 2024 presidential campaign. (Trump was shot during a speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Shooter Thomas Crooks was killed during crossfire with a Secret Service sniper team.)
“Having [Secret Service] around you all the time is crazy,” Hines said. “Also, what’s disturbing is you learn what to look for and what to do in an emergency. Things that you wouldn’t [normally] think about, but now you walk into a room and you look at people and you think, ‘OK, that guy’s sweating a lot for no reason.’”
She continued, “You look to see what’s suspicious, what’s going on and you see things differently. … There are a lot of kooks.”
Cheryl Hines Denies That Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is Trying to ‘Hurt People’
Since RFK Jr. joined the second Trump administration in January 2025, Cheryl Hines has repeatedly insisted that her husband’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda is not politically motivated. However, MAHA initiatives on vaccines, childhood obesity and nutrition, the environment and public health have faced significant pushback from groups like Moms Across America and the American Farm Bureau Federation as well as corporations such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
“When people talk about Bobby and they want to paint him as somebody who is trying to hurt people … it’s like, look at his career and who he is and what he’s accomplished,” Hines told host Joe Rogan.
Hines insisted that Kennedy “spent a lot of time suing huge corporations because they were polluting waterways, which was hurting people, killing people and giving people cancer.”
“Why would he spend all of his life fighting for people, fighting for individuals, and then suddenly change and want to hurt people?” she asked. “It just doesn’t track.”
