What to Know
Cheryl Hines is among the MAGA wives who are still defending their husbands. Some of them are quieter about it than others, but Cheryl, who has reportedly lost friends because of her husband Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s transition into MAGA politics, has gone on multiple podcasts to make it very clear that she still stands by him. Most recently, she appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and suggested that critics of RFK Jr. are misunderstanding him.
People have been generally baffled by several of the women married to men in the Trump administration, like Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance. But Cheryl’s situation is especially perplexing given that she was previously a Democrat. In November 2025, she appeared on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast and claimed that “Republicans have been very kind” to her, while Democrats have been “mean.” And now, she’s shared more about how people’s “mean” rhetoric has bothered her.
Cheryl told Joe Rogan that her husband isn’t trying to hurt anyone.
RFK Jr. has come under fire for spreading harmful misinformation as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2025, numerous health organizations released a statement calling for RFK Jr. to resign due to “repeated efforts to undermine science and public health.” The organizations highlighted issues like vaccination, food safety, and infection tracking, and said RFK Jr.’s rhetoric and agenda have made Americans less safe.
But while on The Joe Rogan Experience, Cheryl tried to argue that her husband is being misrepresented in the media. “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,” she said. “He spent a lot of time suing huge corporations because they were polluting waterways, which was hurting people, killing people, and giving people cancer.”
She seemed focused on the fact that she believes her husband’s intentions are good, though many would argue that having good intentions isn’t enough. “Why would he spend all of his life fighting for people, fighting for individuals, and then suddenly change and want to hurt people?” she continued in his defense. “It just doesn’t track.”
She also said she wasn’t prepared for how vicious people could be.
Being married to such a controversial figure has clearly been difficult for Cheryl, but she’s not blaming him for that. Though there are many things that are challenging about Hollywood, working as an actress didn’t prepare Cheryl for politics. “You’re hustling, you’re working really hard (in the entertainment industry), but you’re not trying to tear other people down,” Cheryl explained. She went on to say that people were always “coming after” her husband, but the backlash obviously increased when he launched his presidential campaign and later started working for Trump.
“There was a feeling of doom for me,” she said. “Bobby’s tough. He’s so friggin’ tough…And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not gonna make it.'”
At this point, she’s still not adjusted to the major life change. “They will viciously attack each other, and then a minute later in the hallway it’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?'” she said, still referring to the world of politics. “And I’m still in shock, you know? I’m still angry about what just happened in there, and they’re already over it. They’re already like, ‘Yeah, that’s politics. That’s what we do.'”
