Tig Notaro said she stepped away from her friendship and documentary podcast with Cheryl Hines as Hines’s husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., became more prominent in politics. Notaro said Hines encouraged her to hear Kennedy out, but she did not trust the arguments being made. She later pushed back on claims that she had simply ended the friendship, saying she continued to reach out while contact between them changed.
How Notaro and Hines’s podcast partnership began
Notaro and Hines co-hosted Tig & Cheryl: True Story from 2020 to 2023. The documentary-focused show used films as a starting point for conversation, which often branched into personal stories and comedic tangents.
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Why Notaro said she stepped away
In 2023, Kennedy announced his presidential campaign. Notaro said that as his political views and public profile grew, positions she had regarded as peripheral became harder to set aside. Speaking on Breaking Bread With Tom Papa, she said, “When he was announcing his run, I just felt like I needed to step away, because there are beliefs that were like a gnat on the arm years ago that were getting further into the spotlight.” The Daily Beast reported her comments on October 16, 2025.
Notaro said Hines encouraged her to hear Kennedy out. Notaro said she could not do that and did not trust the arguments being presented. She also said Kennedy’s 2024 endorsement of Donald Trump made the situation harder. Her account describes why she felt unable to continue the podcast; it does not establish that Hines personally shared every view attributed to Kennedy or that the two had one public confrontation.
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Notaro’s account of what happened to the friendship
Notaro later distinguished leaving the show from ending the friendship. In November 2025, she said she kept sending Hines messages of love and support and received kind replies, but Hines did not otherwise initiate contact. Notaro said, “I didn’t sever the friendship,” and described noticing that she “never heard from her again” apart from those replies. Fox News reported those remarks from Notaro’s appearance on the Handsome Podcast.
In March 2026, Notaro again disputed descriptions of the split as her dumping Hines. “What was a bummer is that there’s some interviews claiming I dumped her and left her in the dust because of Bobby, but I was trying to be a friend to her even though I didn’t feel like I could continue with the podcast,” she said, as reported by Us Weekly on March 11, 2026. Notaro also said that being associated with Hines and Kennedy led people to heckle her during stand-up performances.
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What Hines reportedly said about the split
Us Weekly reported that Hines said on a November 2025 episode of Howie Mandel Does Stuff that she felt helpless when Notaro left, and that there was little she could do apart from leave her husband. That is Hines’s reported perspective; it does not settle what either woman privately intended or capture every detail of their communication.
The public accounts describe two related but distinct changes: Notaro’s decision to leave the podcast over her concerns about Kennedy’s politics, and the subsequent change in contact between the former friends. Notaro said she continued reaching out; Hines was reported to have described feeling helpless about Notaro’s departure.
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