For years, Cheryl Hines worked to publicly distance herself from the more extreme anti-vaccine campaigning of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as she sought to maintain her persona as a beloved and sensibly liberal-minded Hollywood star. As much as possible, Hines also liked to play up being a member-by-marriage of America’s elite Kennedy family.

But Hines’ sunny Hollywood persona began to fall apart ahead of the Nov. 5 election when she quickly appeared to embrace her husband’s ascent into Donald Trump’s inner circle. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star also looked happy to play the role of “MAGA wife” by attending Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and related festivities, as The Cut said.

Then this week, Hines cemented her embrace of MAGA world by sitting behind her husband during his confirmation hearings to become the GOP president’s head of Department of Health and Human Services. During Wednesday’s hearing before the Finance Committee, Hines sometimes revealed a smirk or nervous smile as her husband rejected accusations that he’s “anti-vaccine,” but “spewed more misinformation about public health” and got a pretty intense grilling from Democratic senators, The Cut also said.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 30: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services testifies during his Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kennedy is testifying for a second day following a tense three-hour hearing before the Senate Finance Committee where he clashed with Democrats over his stance on vaccines and abortion rights. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) 

But Hines’ willingness to support her husband’s controversial positions this week shouldn’t be that surprising, especially to anyone who has carefully followed Kennedy’s leadership of the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense. Among other things, Hines happily accompanied her husband of more than 10 years on his infamous 2019 trip to Samoa, where his meetings with anti-vaccine activists were seen as playing a role in a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly unvaccinated children.

Samoa Global News reported in June 2019 that Kennedy and Hines were special guests at the South Pacific island nation’s 57th independence celebrations, where the couple stayed at a luxury resort. They also attended the annual Seki Fest musical festival, where Hines posted a photo of herself with local performers.

“That #FridayFeeling in #Samoa,” wrote Hines, posing saucily in bright blonde hair and a one-shoulder mini dress. She also added, “I’m secretly hoping this pic bothers #TigNotaro,” a reference to the comedian, a longtime friend and one-time podcast co-host.

(L-R) US Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines depart at the conclusion of the inauguration ceremony where President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 

That Samoa trip came up at least twice during Kennedy’s confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Mother Jones reported that Kennedy tried to gloss over details about his involvement in the measles outbreak, as he testified that his trip to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines.” But that’s not what the record shows, according to NBC News and to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Finance Committee member interrogated Kennedy on his attempt to deny that his visit to Samoa was vaccine-related and his false claims to that country’s prime minister that children weren’t dying from measles but from “defective” vaccines.

“I asked you about this in my office,” Warren said. “You told me flatly that your visit to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccinations. We now know that’s not true. I have the documentation. You met with the prime minister, you talked about vaccinations. You met with an anti-vaccine influencer who described the meeting as ‘profoundly monumental for this movement.’”

NBC reported that Kennedy and Hines visited Samoa nearly a year after the country’s ministry of health temporarily suspended its vaccine program after two babies died after receiving the measles vaccine. It was subsequently discovered that two nurses had mistakenly mixed the vaccine with a muscle relaxant. Even after the nurses were arrested and charged with manslaughter, Kennedy’s nonprofit was among organizations that continued to post social media content that suggested that vaccines were unsafe, NBC News reported.

Kennedy and Hines arrived in Samoa in June after the country started up its vaccine program again, but the vaccination rate remained low, according to NBC News. Much about the couple’s trip wasn’t made public, except for photos Kennedy posted to his Instagram account showing him visiting churches, playing on the beach and catching starfish. But during a dinner there, Dr. Take Naseri, Samoa’s director general of health, said he briefly spoke to Kennedy who shared his view that vaccines weren’t safe, NBC News reported.

A measles outbreak was declared in Samoa in October. Nonetheless, as the deaths began mounting, Warren reminded Kennedy that he sent to a letter to the prime minister, promoting the idea that the children had died not from measles but from a “defective vaccine.”

“You are a very influential man,” Warren told Kennedy, with Hines and conservative pundit Megyn Kelly prominently seated behind him. “In fact, you are called the leader of the disinformation dozen,” she said, referring to Kennedy being named one of the top spreaders of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Warren then asked Kennedy if he felt “even a scintilla, just even a sliver of responsibility for the drop in vaccinations (in Samoa) and the subsequent deaths of more than 70 people?”

Kennedy responded by saying “No, absolutely not.” He began to argue that the program had been suspended before he and Hines traveled to Samoa. But Warren, citing time limits, shut down Kennedy by saying, “He takes no responsibility.”

As NBC News acknowledged, Kennedy’s role in the measles outbreak is complex. During Thursday’s hearing before the Senate health committee, Kennedy again rejected accusations that he is “anti-vaccine” but was evasive when pressed about whether he believed some widely used vaccines were safe and effective.

As for Hines, it’s not clear whether she was present when her husband talked to local officials in Samoa about vaccines.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 25: Actress Cheryl Hines (R) and her husband, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., greet supporters during a campaign event to announce his pick for running mate at the Henry J. Kaiser Event Center on March 26, 2024 in Oakland, California. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) 

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Hines has long had her apologists, who want to see her as “an unwitting supporting player” in her husband’s “nonsense,” as commentator Kayleigh Donaldson wrote in an August essay for Pajiba. But Donaldson argued that this is a misreading of how Hines herself has portrayed her partnership with Kennedy. After all, Hines publicly supported Kennedy’s run for president in 2024, during which he spouted conspiracy theories and false claims about vaccines causing autism, NPR reported. 

The essay argues that Hines “is a bad person” and has been “a bad person” all along. Donaldson wrote: “You can deal with marrying someone whose politics don’t 100% line up with yours. That’s just life. But you don’t marry an anti-vaxxer AIDS denialist then hold his hand onstage as he runs for president based on those ideals without endorsing them, implicitly or otherwise.”

“Even if you hate everything they stand for, by staying married to them and acting as the doting political spouse, you’re empowering them,” Donaldson continued.

After Kennedy announced his run for president, he told the New York Times that he offered to separate from Hines to spare her any embarrassment from his political positions. Incidentally, this offer came a year before Kennedy embarrassed Hines by being caught in a sordid cheating scandal with political reporter Olivia Nuzzi.

The cheating scandal sparked reports that Hines had finally had enough and would divorce Kennedy. But  the actor ended up laughing off those reports at an event in October, saying she continued to rely on their love “connection” to help them weather the various controversies around them. As Donaldson wrote in August that Hines “is exactly where she wants to be,” another social media user reacted to Hines’ presence at Wednesday’s hearing by saying, “It’s time Cheryl Hines stops getting a pass. Standing by her ‘husband’ is abhorrent as he poses a deadly threat to all Americans and our healthcare system.”