Tig Notaro has given more details on the end of her friendship with Cheryl Hines over the political views of her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The comedian noted that she didn’t “sever the friendship,” rather “once he was running for president and once I stepped away from our old podcast, I never heard from her again other than nice responses to me sending love when I thought maybe she needs support or maybe she’s feeling this way or that, based on what I knew of her,” Notaro said Tuesday, on her Handsome Podcast.
Notaro and Hines once cohosted another podcast, Tig & Cheryl: True Story, in which they had conversations about documentaries, but they grew estranged after Kennedy launched his campaign in 2023.
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“She and I had a four-hour conversation, and she went through different issues and encouraged me to sit down with Bobby, and I was like, ‘Let me think on this,'” Notaro said of the politician who has spoken against vaccines and is the Trump administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. “And then I woke up, and I was like, ‘Yeah. No, thank you.'”
Notaro made a conscious decision to retreat.
“When Bobby was running for president and then endorsed Trump, and I was still tied to Cheryl in ways…. The other issue was, this isn’t my world. This is not my world,” she said. “And if you’re choosing to go into that world, that is your business. But I have to step outside, because I didn’t know, and I still don’t know where this road is going. But it’s not one that I’m interested in.”
Notaro’s cohosts, Mae Martin and Fortune Feimster, noted that many people are experiencing what it’s like to have differing political views from loved ones and deciding where to draw the line.
“Honestly, it took me a while to draw a line, because I continued to reach out to Cheryl and say, you know, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you. Hey, I hope you’re doing okay. Hey, I’m sending love, and I care about you,'” said Notaro, who reported receiving a surprisingly large number of supportive messages about her comments. “And she would respond really pleasantly and friendly and say, ‘Oh, thank you for this. And I was open to, ‘Hey, let’s remain friendly.’ I cared about Cheryl. I care about Cheryl. That doesn’t change.”
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Notaro’s comments about the demise of her friendship with Hines last month on the Breaking Bread with Tom Papa podcast caught attention. She had explained some of what caused the rift then.
“When he was announcing his run, I just felt like I needed to step away,” she said, “because there are beliefs that were like a gnat on the arm years ago that were getting further into the spotlight.”
Listen to the full conversation above.