Cheryl Hines Reportedly Had Fair Warning of RFK Jr.’s ‘History as a Womanizer’ Ahead of Marriage

When Cheryl Hines began dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in December 2011 after being introduced by her Curbed Your Enthusiasm co-star Larry David, some of her pals raised the red flag. It seems that the 70-year-old politician’s previous cheating reputation had them worried — his second marriage to the late Mary Kathleen Richardson was fraught with infidelity.

Hines married RFK Jr. in August 2014 despite her friends’ hesitations — they were allegedly “mystified” by the relationship, according to Jerry Oppenheimer’s 2015 book, RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. Kennedy had an unfortunate “history as a womanizer … intertwined with scandal,” per the author, via Page Six.

“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,” Oppenheimer wrote. “Women have to understand what they’re getting into when they’re with him. You can hate it, you can make excuses for it, you can do whatever you want to do, it doesn’t change the fact that he has a long history of doing certain things.” Hines weathered through whispers just weeks before her wedding that her fiancé had a fling with socialite Chelsea Chapman Kirwan, so perhaps the 2024 news that he had an emotional affair with New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi is no surprise.

The 31-year-old political reporter’s personal relationship with RFK Jr. was revealed on Thursday, Sept. 19. with New York Magazine‘s official “Note to Our Readers.” The statement read, “Recently our Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures. Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign.” Nuzzi is “currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review.”

While Nuzzi told New York Magazine editor David Haskell that the relationship “was never physical,” their emotional affair began in December 2023 just after her November profile on the then-presidential candidate was published, per The Washington Post. “I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York,” Nuzzi said in a statement to CNN. RFK Jr.’s representative distanced himself from the situation, telling The Washington Post, “Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”

For Hines and Nuzzi’s fiancé Ryan Lizza, they are left to sort through the very public mess and pick of the pieces of their relationships.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples who have stayed together after cheating scandals.