Cheryl Hines ‘Hit a Wall’ During RFK Jr.’s Alleged Sexting Scandal and ‘Laid It All on the Table’

Cheryl Hines is recounting the days after news broke that her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was allegedly involved in an intimate texting relationship with journalist Olivia Nuzzi.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm actress, 60, opened up about the scandal in her recently released memoir, Unscripted, which hit shelves Tuesday, November 11.

During RFK Jr.’s 2024 presidential campaign, the former New York magazine journalist, 32, interviewed the politician, 71, and later alleged their relationship turned “personal” — but not physical. (At the time, Kennedy released a statement via his spokesperson claiming they only met once and that the interview resulted in a “hit piece.”)

Hines and her daughters were in Italy as headlines involving her husband quickly flooded the internet.

“Bobby called to warn me of another breaking story,” she wrote in Unscripted, according to People. “At first, it was an ambiguous story about a political journalist who said she had some communication with a former reporting subject that had turned personal, also stating that it was never physical. There was a lot of speculation that she was referring to Bobby. The press was running wild with it.”

While Hines admitted she hadn’t seen the “full scope of the coverage” at the time, she “hated all of it” and felt upset and overwhelmed, adding: “I had hit a wall.”

“This latest story was leaving me with the feeling of being unimportant to him,” she explained. “It felt like a game people were playing and I wasn’t interested in participating. It was the end of the line for me.”

Upon her return home from Europe, she said she felt “so distant” from the secretary of health and human services, whom she married in August 2014, but they finally decided to talk.

“For the next few days, we stopped everything and drilled down on the truth,” she wrote. “We locked ourselves in our room and laid it all on the table.”

“We talked about all of the painful times we’d been through in the last few years and what we meant to each other,” Hines said. “We analyzed how we had become disconnected and what had kept us together. We went through all of the details about the latest story — what was true and what wasn’t. Through those soul-searching days, we tightened our ties that bind.”

Nuzzi was put on leave from New York magazine until the publication announced in October 2024 that they “parted ways” with the reporter. (Nuzzi now works as the West Coast editor for Vanity Fair.)

While promoting Unscripted, Hines also appeared on the October 30 episode of Heather McDonald’s Juicy Scoop podcast and addressed the scandal.

“I was in Italy with my girls and this story breaks, and I’m like, ‘I can’t. I can’t hear one more, this is too much,’” she said.

Appearing on The View last month, hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin pressed Hines about her husband.

The actress later said on the Hot Mics with Billy Bush podcast, “You know, I was actually hoping that it was going to be more personal on The View. But it was what it was. They just wanted to grill me about Bobby.”