Cheryl Hines paid tribute to mother-in-law Ethel Kennedy after her death Thursday, marking the first time the actress and wife of embattled politician Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spoken publicly since news of her husband’s affair with New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi broke last month.
“My mother in law, Ethel Kennedy, Bobby’s mother, passed this morning,” Hines wrote on her personal X account — “Bobby” being RFK Jr. “It has been my great honor to have shared laughter and love with Ethel. Her charisma, wisdom and strength will live on with me in every memory of her.”
“Bobby and I spent many warm nights in Hyannis Port having dinner with her and hearing stories from her extraordinary life,” the post continued. “She always made me laugh. She was never too serious except when she needed to be. She dressed to nines with bare feet. She will be missed. My love is with the family.”
My mother in law, Ethel Kennedy, Bobby's mother, passed this morning. It has been my great honor to have shared laughter and love with Ethel. Her charisma, wisdom and strength will live on with me in every memory of her. Bobby and I spent many warm nights in Hyannis Port having… pic.twitter.com/j7faAcU1Bm
— Cheryl Hines (@CherylHines) October 10, 2024
The Thursday social media post was Hines’ first since Aug. 23, when she shared news of Kennedy bowing out of the presidential race as an independent candidate against Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
At the time, she commended her husband’s efforts, expressed respect for his decision to exit and shared that the experience of campaigning at his side was “an eye-opening, transformative and endearing journey.”
Less than one month later, journalist Oliver Darcy, founder of the Status newsletter, broke news of a so-called “digital” affair between RFK Jr. and New York Magazine’s Washington, D.C., correspondent Nuzzi. The news sent Nuzzi’s career and reputation into a tailspin as her messages with the politician, whom she profiled for the magazine in 2023, became gossip fodder and the subject of a lawsuit against her ex-fiancé, political journalist Ryan Lizza.
Hines has likewise remained silent — to mounting criticism — amid her husband’s pivot to support Trump and reports of his increasingly bizarre, sordid past, not the least of which involved beheading a whale and bringing it home.
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