Copyright Variety
Cheryl Hines has criticized her interview earlier this month on “The View,” saying the hosts “just wanted to grill me” about her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently serving as the U.S. secretary of health and human services. Hines, an actor and comedian best known for her role on Larry David’s HBO sitcom “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” appeared on the ABC talk show Oct. 14 to promote her upcoming memoir “Unscripted.” Though the book documents Hines’ newfound involvement in politics alongside RFK Jr. as he mounted a presidential campaign in 2024, “The View” hosts focused their questions on her husband’s current policies and relationship with President Donald Trump. On Billy Bush’s “Hot Mics” show on Tuesday, Hines said that she wishes the questions were more “personal.” “You know, I was actually hoping that it was going to be more personal on ‘The View,’ but it was what it was. They just wanted to grill me about Bobby,” she said. “I mean, I don’t think the ladies on ‘The View’ asked me one question about my book. But, you know, that’s OK.” During Hines’ “View” interview, hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg acknowledged that “it’s not fair” to put her “on the spot” about RFK Jr. and it’s not her “fight to be having,” but questioned her about his views on vaccines and qualifications for the health and human services role. The conversation turned particularly tense when Sunny Hostin asserted that RFK Jr. has “spread a lot of misinformation, a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion,” pointing out once Hines began to reply that “he’s connecting circumcisions to autism.” Hines interjected, “May I? May I finish?” before claiming that when Anthony Fauci was “saying when you get the vaccine, you cannot transmit COVID, it will stop COVID, that was disinformation.” Behar cut the tension by asking Hines if RFK Jr. really has a brain worm, to which Hines joked: “It ate just a little bit of his brain and died, so don’t worry!” At the end of the interview, Goldberg stressed the importance of welcoming others onto the show who have different viewpoints, asking Hines to come back. “We don’t often get people on this show who we can ask these questions to, and I appreciate that you came on,” Goldberg said. “Because you know what, if we can have the discussion back and forth, it then becomes people’s — then they can decide what they believe, and they don’t just hear one side.” Despite Hines’ comments on Bush’s “Hot Mics,” a rep for the actor told Entertainment Weekly that she still considers “the appearance a success.” “Cheryl engaged with respect and class, in light of them asking her repeatedly to defend her husband, which by the way was not the purpose of her appearance, it was to discuss her new memoir ‘Unscripted,'” the rep told EW. “She was completely unbothered, as one would have to be living in a cave to think they wouldn’t make Bobby the primary focus.” A representative for “The View” did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
