The Biggest Rumors About Cheryl Hines And RFK Jr's Relationship

Relationships between politicians and actors are matches made in gossip heaven, but Cheryl Hines and RFK Jr.'s relationship is more so because of how notorious the Kennedy family is. Right off the bat, people suspected that the health secretary and his wife weren't exactly being truthful about their relationship timeline. The pair announced that they were together in 2012, but some corners of the internet believe that they were an item long before. This would mean that RFK Jr. and Hines were dating while he was still actively with his then-wife Mary Richardson, which is the biggest rumor surrounding this couple.

While there isn't any publicly available proof of this, a lot of people seem convinced. "[RFK Jr.] was cheating when they hooked up, and then [Hines] stayed with him after he forced his wife to leave so she could move in," one Redditor commented. The official timeline is that RFK Jr. filed for divorce from his then-wife, Richardson, in May 2010. Soon after, Richardson found his diary, which detailed his affairs with 37 women. By January 2012, RFK Jr. was already publicly going on dates with Hines and announced their relationship that same year, which many hold as proof that they'd been seeing each other on the low long before. Four months later, in May, Mary Richardson was found dead from suicide. However, unlike the unsubstantiated affair rumors, other whispers reportedly come with more proof and add to the red flags in Cheryl Hines and RFK Jr.'s marriage.

If this sounds a bit vague to you, you're not alone. In September 2024, New York Magazine announced that one of its journalists, Olivia Nuzzi, had been put on leave, but was intentionally vague about the details. It said that Nuzzi had a "personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign," but didn't even clarify who the "subject" was. However, Status News soon revealed that Nuzzi's relationship was with RFK Jr. and that their relationship was digital, leading many people to conclude that the pair had been sexting during his ongoing marriage to Cheryl Hines. And although this may not be fully considered as adultery, the difference between adultery and infidelity is negligible to many.

Given that neither party was forthcoming with details, a lot of it was left to speculation until CNN obtained documents that showed that Nuzzi was suing her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza for leaking the information about what was reportedly a year-long relationship rather than just a brief, one-off sexting scandal. In his own filing, Lizza kicked back against the allegations and claimed that Nuzzi had told him that RFK Jr. had told her that he wanted to "possess," "control," and "impregnate" her.

Neither of the parties involved has given an express account of the situation, but since Nuzzi and Lizza will be in court in November, and Nuzzi's book, "American Canto," will be released in December 2025, we can safely assume that there's more to these digital affair rumors. For now, what we do know is how sources claim Hines reacted to the fiasco. In October 2024, People reported that Hines and RFK Jr. weren't speaking thanks to the backlash from the scandal. "She's embarrassed because he got caught," the publication's source said. However, judging by Cheryl Hines' inappropriate outfit at the 2022 Emmys after-party, she doesn't seem to shrink away from wagging tongues, so proven infidelity or not, she's probably got it all figured out.