Trust Issues & Beyond: Signs RFK Jr. & Cheryl Hines Relationship Won't Last

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s marriage started out on a slippery slope. During a joint August 2014 interview with the New York Times, the couple revealed that Hines' friend and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" co-star, Larry David, introduced them at a skiing retreat back in 2006. However, a romantic connection didn't blossom until they had met two more times. During that fateful third meeting, both RFK Jr. and Hines were in the process of getting out of their respective marriages. The actor recalled how she was pleasantly surprised by her future husband's ability to make her laugh despite the general perception of politicians being a bit too stuffy and serious. 

Meanwhile, the former 2024 Independent Party candidate gushed that he "had never seen Cheryl do anything that seemed small or selfish. She has as much integrity as anyone I've ever seen." They started dating around the end of 2011 and happily confirmed their engagement in April 2014. But, in June 2014, just months before they walked down the aisle, a Daily Mail source claimed that Hines' fiancé had cheated on her with his friend, Chelsea Chapman Kirwan. According to The National Enquirer, the affair lasted two years. 

However, it didn't seem like the "Suburgatory" star was fazed by RFK Jr.'s reported infidelity since they still got married in August 2014. As the years went by, it seemed like the couple's relationship would stand the test of time. Unfortunately, the cracks became glaringly obvious during the 2024 presidential elections. In fact, when their marriage was hit with infidelity rumors once more, Hines spent her birthday apart from her husband and even ditched her wedding ring temporarily. The List reached out to Nicole Moore, celebrity love coach, for her expert take on their relationship.

According to a September 2014 New York Post report Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once had 43 "mistresses" in his phone. The controversial politician had alphabetically stored these women's names under simply "G," which his second wife, Mary Richardson, believed represented the Italian colloquial term for mistress, "goomar." Then, in September 2024, a spokesperson for New York Magazine shared a statement with Status to announce that political reporter Olivia Nuzzi was on leave because she had violated their policies by engaging in a "personal relationship" with someone who was involved in the 2024 presidential race. 

Naturally, it didn't take people long to figure out that the person in question was none other than RFK Jr. Although the lawyer's history of alleged infidelity made the news less shocking, it still led everyone to wonder why Cheryl Hines would choose to get into a relationship with someone with RFK Jr.'s past. To get an answer to that complex question, we tapped into the expertise of celebrity love coach Nicole Moore. 

"If someone is a romantic, they might marry or remain married to someone with a history of cheating because they believe that their love is enough to change someone else's behavior," she explained. Additionally, they may enter into a relationship with a cheater with the optimistic outlook that they had changed or even that their poor treatment of an ex didn't necessarily reflect how they would be treated. Likewise, according to Moore, a select few people didn't see cheating as that big of a deal regardless. 

Cheryl Hines was angrier about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s cheating scandal than we realized. According to a Daily Mail insider, she even gave her husband a strict deadline to relocate her from Los Angeles to D.C, where he was due to live while serving as Donald Trump's new Secretary of Health and Human Services. The "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star apparently had no faith left in RFK Jr. and didn't want to wait and see how he would react to the women he came across in D.C. 

According to celebrity love coach Nicole Moore, rebuilding trust after cheating is an arduous task that could also prove to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride. She explained that a person who was cheated on needs constant reassurance and consistent communication from their partner, especially whenever they were apart. However, even with those things in place, the person who got cheated on would likely only heal completely following years of things going consistently well. 

As Moore pointed out, though, that will be considerably more difficult if the person who cheated on their partner doesn't do some self-work to fix the reason behind their infidelity. Although the couple may be at odds behind the scenes, they arguably haven't let their discord show publicly. Moore offered a reason why Hines may be putting on a brave face, noting, "Someone in the public eye who has an image to maintain might prefer to deny the cheating scandal and stay with a cheating partner to avoid the public seeing them with pity or wondering if perhaps their partner didn't think they were good enough in some way."

In Jerry Oppenheimer's 2015 book "RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream," he wrote that a guest at Cheryl Hines' wedding to the politician "was mystified as to why Hines married Bob, since his history as a womanizer had become so public and was intertwined in scandal." Similarly, when the "Bad Moms" star and RFK Jr. sat down for a joint interview on "In Depth With Graham Bensinger," in April 2024, she admitted that Larry David wasn't too optimistic about the outcome of their relationship either and had earnestly warned her: "That will never work." When Bensinger questioned why the iconic comedian felt compelled to issue such a warning, Hines confessed that his doubt came as no surprise since no good friend would be able to genuinely support her getting into a relationship with a man with RFK Jr.'s checkered past. 

As celebrity love coach Nicole Moore exclusively informed The List, people should generally take heed of such cautions from their loved ones because they likely wouldn't want to risk intervening in their love life unless they had a major concern. The expert also believed that, in some cases, an external perspective could help validate a person's doubts about their relationship and help them take the necessary steps to navigate them. However, a friend could also push someone to make a major decision that they weren't emotionally equipped to handle. Ultimately, Moore reckoned everyone should weigh their inner circle's warnings against their own perspective to gain more clarity.

In October 2024, we learned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s rumored affair wouldn't be the reason he splits from Cheryl Hines after all. At the time, a Page Six source claimed, "She knew she was getting in with a Kennedy, who are known for being infamous womanizers. But she never signed up to be a member of Trump World!" When the divisive politician spoke to TMZ in August 2024, he acknowledged that his wife had no love for Donald Trump and had only backed his decision to endorse him after dropping out of the 2024 elections because she loved him. 

RFK Jr. also threw his wife under the bus in the Trump controversy when he appeared on "The Tucker Carlson Show." According to the health secretary, he initially turned down a spot in the Republican president's cabinet because RFK Jr. knew it wouldn't sit well with Hines. However, when he called her to get her thoughts, the actor urged him to at least meet with Trump. It's worth noting that when Variety asked Hines and RFK Jr. for their thoughts on him joining Trump's ticket in January 2024, he quipped, "I don't think that my marriage would survive it." 

Needless to say, his wife couldn't help but agree. And, according to a Page Six source, a few folks in the president's inner circle were desperately hoping that RFK Jr.'s alleged infidelity with Olivia Nuzzi would cause the end of his marriage since they disagreed with Hines' political views and didn't want her to move to D.C. with him.

While speaking at an anti-vaccine rally in 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that during World War II, people could save themselves from perishing in the Holocaust by going into hiding like Anne Frank or traveling to a different country altogether. However, he worried that vaccine mandates couldn't be similarly avoided. The highly offensive remark obviously didn't go down well. And, as the backlash poured in, many wondered about Cheryl Hines' stance on the polarizing issue since she had previously appeared in a 2006 PSA supporting whooping cough vaccines. 

RFK Jr.'s wife called his rally remarks "reprehensible" in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. After further decrying them as "insensitive," she asserted, "The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own." The controversial politician later shared with the New York Times, in June 2023, that he couldn't bear to watch his wife taking the heat for his words. So, the controversial politician offered to lie and tell the world that they had separated to give her a break.

Although faking a split was never a viable option for the "Ugly Truth" star, Hines took the opportunity to reiterate her issues with her husband's controversial comments, adding, "It was also frustrating to hear Bobby say things that could so easily be twisted into snippets that misrepresented his meaning and didn't represent who he is." Needless to say, the actor only had to bear more harsh criticism after RFK Jr. became the U.S. health secretary.