Cheryl Hines has reportedly reached the limits of her marriage to the “egomaniacal” and politically polarizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and is considering a divorce, according to Kennedy’s biographer.
These limits have been reached following revelations of Kennedy’s allegedly “bizarre” sexting relationship with Olivia Nuzzi, a much younger political journalist, while he was running for president, writes Jerry Oppenheimer, the author of the 2015 book, “RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream.”
Even if the relationship never became “physical,” as Nuzzi has claimed, the nature of it has made it clear to Hines that her 70-year-old husband has not brought his “sex demons” under control as he promised, Oppenheimer has written in a column for the Daily Mail.
Oppenheimer quoted a confidante of Hines, 59, who said that the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor was “blindsided” by revelations about the “personal relationship” with Nuzzi, 31.
“Cheryl was always very aware that Bobby had a long history of womanizing,” the friend told Oppenheimer. “She herself had become very publicly involved with him when he was still married to his second wife, so his playing around wasn’t anything new to her.”
“However, she firmly believed Bobby, in his seventh decade and with political aspirations, finally had his sex demons under control, and appeared settled down in their seemingly bucolic southern California domestic life,” the friend continued.
“She adored being a member of America’s royal family, and having the famous Kennedy name attached to hers, but now she’s thoroughly embarrassed and furious about his adulterous actions and (friends) believe she wants out,” the friend also told Oppenheimer.
Sources talking to Page Six agreed Wednesday that Hines is likely to leave Kennedy, but they said the lifelong Democrat is less upset by his alleged infidelity and more dismayed his endorsement of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy and his newfound position in Trump’s MAGA universe. “The guy is a serial philanderer and she knew that coming in,” one source told Page Six.
In his book, Oppenheimer previously wrote that Hines’ friends were “mystified” by her choice to marry Kennedy, according to the Daily Beast. “Any woman who gets involved with Bobby does so with her eyes open, or their brains lopped off. Any woman who thinks they’re going to change Bobby is misguided and purposefully ignorant,” wrote Oppenheimer, who attended the couple’s 2014 at the storied Kennedy compound in Hyannis port.
In the past several years, Hines has put up with a lot even if she had her “eyes open.” Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has became increasingly vocal in fomenting conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine rhetoric that put him at odds with members of his own family and put her in a difficult position with her colleagues in liberal Hollywood.
Hines continued to “walk a fine line” and play the role of publicly supportive spouse as her husband, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, launched an independent presidential campaign that threatened to spoil Joe Biden’s prospects, according to Vanity Fair. Hines even had her husband’s back when he ended his campaign this summer and threw his support to Trump — a move that Kennedy himself told The Hollywood Reporter caused her “a lot of discomfort.”
Around the same time, the “egomaniacal” Kennedy “upped the ante” for embarrassing behavior, with allegations coming in a July Vanity Fair report that he sexually assaulted a former babysitter to his children, along with revelations about how he staged an elaborate bear-cub murder scene in Central Park and beheaded a whale.
“The latest item added to RFK Jr.’s pile of shame” is the alleged inappropriate sexting affair with Nuzzi, a star political writer for New York magazine, Vanity Fair said.
Late last month, Nuzzi acknowledged having a “personal relationship” with Kennedy while covering his campaign. In an editor’s note to readers, New York magazine said that Nuzzi was placed on leave due to the relationship being “in violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.”
Nuzzi shared a statement of her own to the media, confirming that “the nature of some communication” between herself and “a former reporting subject turned personal.” But she added that she “did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source” during that period.
Nuzzi has since gone to court, accusing her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza, a prominent political journalist with Politico, of threatening to go public with personal information about her that could “destroy” her life, career and reputation, if she did not stay in a relationship with him, CNN reported.
A representative for Kennedy initially said that Kennedy only met Nuzzi once, when she visited him at his home in Los Angeles to interview him for a November 2023 New York magazine profile. Last week, surrogates for Kennedy tried to put forward claims that an “obsessed” Nuzzi pursued the candidate and tried to “set (him) up” by repeatedly sending him pornographic photographs of herself, even after he blocked her number.
“This had nothing to do with romance,” Gavin de Becker, a security expert hired by Kennedy to deal with the Nuzzi situation, said in an interview for a Kennedy ally’s Substack. “He was being chased by porn.”
But another report in Page Six suggested that Kennedy was a willing participant in the relationship, with Nuzzi’s friends saying he initiated the romance by “lovebombing her.” She and Kennedy also enjoyed “incredible” FaceTime sessions, with the journalist telling friends she was impressed by the 70-year-old’s “sexual stamina” and claiming that they told each other they loved each other, Page Six also reported.
Amid all this growing drama, Hines spent time in Europe, at Fashion Weeks in Milan and then in Paris. While in Paris, she “flashed her wedding ring” when spotted by photographers, Oppenheimer reported.
But the author believes that her marriage to Kennedy is “nearing its end” because of the Nuzzi scandal. For his biography of Kennedy, Oppenheimer investigated all three of his marriages. In the first two, “his obsessive womanizing would play a role in the unions’ failing,” Oppenheimer wrote.
The New York Post reported in 2013 that Kennedy kept a diary that detailed his sexual relationships with dozens of other women while married to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. Kennedy’s diary ended up in the hands of the New York Post after Richardson died by suicide in 2012.
“And now it appears his third marriage, with Hines, is nearing an end because of the sexting affair,” Oppenheimer wrote.
Oppenheimer quoted another “insider” who said: “Bobby’s like a sexual Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — he’s been that way for decades — and when the opportunity arises with a woman — in his case, just about any woman — the monster side surfaces and controls his brain. I suspect that’s what happened once again when he got entangled in his online sexual relationship with Olivia.”