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Hollywood friends of Cheryl Hines are reportedly stunned by the actress’ transformation from liberal to conservative “MAGA” views. “It’s so hard to make sense in my head because she was so liberal before,” a longtime Hollywood pal reportedly told the Daily Mail in comments published on Wednesday. “And now, she’s married to a member of the Trump administration and she’s literally defending his ridiculous s–t on ‘the View,'” they added. Friends of the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star — who is married to US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — are said to be dismayed that she’s “gone MAGA” after years of being a longtime Democrat. Insiders close to Hines, 60, said the change to fully supportive wife after publicly distancing herself from Kennedy’s polarizing views is “beyond comprehension.” Earlier this month, Hines verbally sparred with the famously liberal hosts of “The View” during an appearance on the daytime ABC talk show while discussing Kennedy’s controversial claims drawing a link between autism, circumcisions, and Tylenol use. “Respectfully, your husband is the least qualified Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] head that we’ve had in history,” co-host Sunny Hostin said. “I think that’s very, very dangerous.” Hines clapped back and defended her husband of 11 years, saying she doesn’t know how he’s “less qualified than an economist” — seemingly referencing Sylvia Burwell, the political campaign staffer who headed up HHS under former president Barack Obama. “He has spent his career studying toxins, studying people’s health, fighting for one guy who was using Roundup for his job,” she added, referencing Kennedy’s former job as an attorney — he previously represented a school groundskeeper who claimed his use of Roundup weed killer resulted in a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Kennedy’s former client was ultimately awarded $289 million in the case in 2018. Hostin shot back, alleging that Kennedy “has also spread a lot of misinformation, a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion. And I think it’s just a very dangerous thing.” Hostin added, “I say it with the utmost respect.” “The View” co-host Joy Behar chimed in, “Some of it’s good and some of it is not.” When pressed by Behar and Whoopi Goldberg on Kennedy’s apparent anti-vaccine views — based on since-debunked claims that certain vaccines cause autism — Hines again defended her husband. “Can we listen to parents who say, my child got the vaccine and changed and stopped hitting markers, stopped developing the way they were developing — can we listen to people when they say that?” Hines queried. A source said it was “surreal” to watch Hines go to bat for Kennedy’s controversial views. “I watched that and I was like ‘who are you and what have you done to Cheryl?'” they reportedly told the Daily Mail. “I know she loves her husband, but it feels like she abandoned what she believed to be with him,” they continued. “At the time, it made sense, her marrying a Kennedy,” the Hollywood friend said of her 2014 marriage to Kennedy. “But I didn’t see this coming.” Hines has also stood behind Kennedy amid his alleged sexting scandal with journalist Olivia Nuzzi. A longtime friend — who reportedly knew Hines from the time she studied TV and radio production at the University of Central Florida — expressed shock at Hines’ apparent change. “We don’t talk politics,” they told the outlet, adding that if they do, it “just goes south.” “It’s like she’s gone MAGA, or at least MAHA, which is just so…beyond comprehension to me,” they explained. “She went from ‘That side is bonkers’ to ‘Well, they have some good points,’ and ‘MAGA people mean well, they’re not bad people.'” They continued, “It makes me wonder if she was like this all along or if something has shifted in her ethics and morals.” A “Curb Your Enthusiasm” crew member told the Daily Mail that her political views are now “unrecognizable” from what they were when she joined the beloved show’s cast back in 1999. Hines was “100 percent a Democrat for as long as I worked with her, and proudly so,” they reportedly said. “Encouraging people to vote blue, standing up for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, liberal politics,” they added. “And now she’s completely on the other side.” They also lamented Hines’ apparent “sudden shift” in political beliefs that seemingly happened “overnight.” “I respect her right to have an opinion, but this is just crazy to me,” they explained. A rep for Hines did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment. The “Waitress” actress — who married Kennedy in 2014 — previously pushed back on her husband’s 2022 comments saying unvaccinated individuals were more oppressed than people who lived in Nazi Germany. “My husband’s opinions are not a reflection of my own,” she said at the time, calling them “reprehensible and insensitive” and adding, “While we love each other, we differ on many current issues.”
