Actor Cheryl Hines says she supports the presidential bid of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite evidence that they disagreed on previous issues.
He announced his plans to run for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Boston, saying that “his mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end the consolidation of state and corporate power that now threatens to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism on our country.”
Soon after, Hines released a statement of support to People.
“My husband, Robert Kennedy Jr., announced today that he is running for President, and I support his decision,” the 57-year-old “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star said in the statement, adding that he “was a fearless leader who understood the needs of the American people and devoted his life to democracy.
Hines did not always support all of his wife’s views.
Although Kennedy was once known primarily as an environmental advocate, over the past two decades he has become better known as one of the leading voices of the anti-vaccine movement.
As a result, he was called out by family and friends for his views, such as in 2019 when two brothers and a nephew told Politico that Kennedy was part of a “campaign to attack institutions committed to reducing the tragedies of preventable infectious diseases.”
Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, an international human rights group founded by her mother, Ethel, told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview that her brother was “wrong [the vaccine] very problematic and dangerous.”
But Hines also criticized the behavior of his wife, whom he has been married to since 2014.
In January 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacked after comparing anti-vaxxer experiences to Holocaust victims and referencing Anne Frank during rally against vaccine mandate in Washington, DC
In response, Hines told Twitter users, “My wife’s thoughts are not a reflection of me. While we love each other, we differ on many issues today.
He later condemned his remarks saying that the Anne Frank reference was “reprehensible and insensitive.”
He added: “The atrocities committed by millions of people during the Holocaust cannot be compared to anyone or anything. Their views are not a reflection of my own.”
Despite the obvious fact, many Twitter users felt the need to reference him in a tweet about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement.