Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Last month, comedian Tig Notaro said that she was taking some space from her longtime friend Cheryl Hines now that she’s gone full MAGA wife. While they used to host a podcast together, Notaro said that things started to get uncomfortable after Hines’s husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced he was running for president in 2023. But discussing their falling out this week, Notaro said it was actually Hines who pulled away from the friendship first.
“Honestly, it took me a while to draw a line,” Notaro said on her podcast Handsome, adding that Hines had been “a bright spot” and “a really important person” in her life. After she left their podcast, Tig and Cheryl: True Story, in 2023, Notaro said she continued to reach out to Hines to offer support. “She would respond really pleasantly and friendly,” said Notaro.
Notaro says that at first, she tried to make it work. “She and I had like a four-hour conversation, and she went through different issues and encouraged me to sit down with Bobby,” Notaro said. “I was like, Let me think on this. And then I woke up and I was like, Yeah, no thank you.” After that, Notaro says Hines stopped reaching out. “I didn’t sever the friendship,” she said. “But I did notice that once he was running for president, and once I stepped away from our old podcast, I never heard from her again” aside from polite responses to her supportive messages.
“I care about Cheryl,” Notaro said, but she remains confused by her former friend’s “about-face.” Speaking of Kennedy — the anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist now in charge of the nation’s health — she added: “There’s a lot of issues that I do not believe in that he is endorsing that Cheryl is clearly endorsing.” While Notaro didn’t elaborate on which beliefs in particular she takes issue with, there are plenty to choose from: As of this week, the CDC’s website now echoes Kennedy’s unfounded belief that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
As for Hines, she’s spent the past month gushing about how much she loves her new friends, a group that includes Linda McMahon, Marco Rubio, and Rubio’s wife, Jeanette. Sounds like she doesn’t have any regrets.
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