Holy crap, did you realize that Robert Kennedy Jr. is 60 years old?! Mind blown. I seriously thought he was in his late 40s. My concept of time is all over the place. Anyway, RFK Jr. has been married twice before – he left his second wife Mary sometime in 2010/11 when her mental illness was peaking and she had become a danger to herself and their children. Well, that was his story anyway. He began dating Cheryl Hines shortly after that, and in 2012, Mary Kennedy hanged herself. You may remember, Robert and Mary’s son Conor Kennedy began dating shortly after his mom’s death. Well, all of that was just background… now Robert and Cheryl Hines are engaged!
Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are planning to tie the knot!
“Yes, they are engaged,” a source close to the situation tells PEOPLE of the couple, who began dating in 2012.
This will be the second marriage for Hines, 48, and the third for Kennedy, 60, whose second wife, Mary, committed suicide in the family’s Bedford, New York, home in May 2012. The Suburgatory star sang the praises of her environmentalist beau at an event in L.A. in March.
“I really like this guy,” she said at the UCLA event that honored the attorney, calling the father of six “a devoted dad and an all-around good guy.”
I didn’t realize Cheryl Hines was 48 either – I thought she was ten years younger. Well, at least their ages aren’t crazy far-apart. Twelve years is a significant age difference, of course, but no one is going to raise their eyebrows over a 60 year old marrying a 48 year old. The larger question I have is… could you do what Cheryl is doing? I mean, even though I believe Mary Kennedy had significant mental health problems, you’re still getting engaged to a guy whose last wife killed herself. Plus, you’re signing up to marry a Kennedy man and all the baggage and tragedy that comes with it. I don’t know. Godspeed, Cheryl. I hope everything is okay.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Congrats and good luck!
I’ll say Good Luck. I hope she realizes the dysfunctional family she’s becoming a part of.
Differences in age are meaningless once you’re a real adult. 12 years is nothing at that age. There are more important, more fundamental factors to consider in determining compatibility. The music you listened to at 13 is not one of them.
I’m a Democrat (a super far left one) and I hate this guy. Terrible, terrible idea to get hooked up with this creep. His defense of his cousin, Michael Skakel (another creep) was unconscionable, imo, to say nothing of his treatment of his ex-wife.
She’s such a great comedic actress – I’m really sad to hear the Suburgatory was cancelled – I’m going to miss Dallas (and Dahlia!). I hope she gets offered another great part and doesn’t retire to hang out with “America’s Royalty”. Barf.
I grew up in a family of Catholic Democrats who revered the Kennedys-and you are totally on target. This guy is also chronically unfaithful. He cheated on his first wife with his second wife-he cheated all the time on her. I always liked Cheryl Hines and I wish her a lot of luck.
I agree… and she’s going to need it. I have a feeling she’s been “dickmatized”
I agree, he gives me the creeps.
Leftist, ‘out there’ Massachusetts Democrat here to agree with you that this guy has no integrity. Been coasting off the Kennedy name his entire life professionally. He left his first wife because he had impregnated his side piece, cheated on his next wife constantly, and then finally left his second wife without any cash flow or any means of supporting herself. This person is no prize.
Also? Cheryl Hines had better watch her drinking – the rate of alcoholism among the Kennedy women is extremely high.
Seconded. And he’s super unattractive to boot.
I love CH on Curb SO HARD and want the best for her. This makes me nervous.
Wow, she looks a lot younger than 48! I would place her at mid-30s. Congrats!
Yeah, she looks incredible.
Wow! I guess my perception of young must be way off then because I’m 42 and always thought she was quite a bit older than me. I watch her on Suburgatory and 48 sounds reasonable to me. No way she looks mid-30’s.
Thank you, I always thought she was in her late 50s!
He looks early fifties rather than late 40’s and she looks early 40’s….that second photo she looks her age whereas the first one has great lighting and she looks young.
Anyway it’s not really fair to insinuate Mary killed herself because of Robert….she obviously did have some serious issues that were not his fault.
And when she killed herself wasn’t Conor and his sister around 17 years old? That’s old enough to know if your mom killed herself because your dad is a horrible person…..and there’s been no problems between father and children.
I really like Cheryl – so congrats to her!
He treated his wife horribly.
Mary’s death can’t be blamed squarely on anyone else, but some of the stuff that was alleged made me side-eye both Cheryl and Robert. If they had any idea how fragile Mary was, and how much difficulty she was having as her marriage was unwinding, then (Cheryl) bragging about the relationship via social media pics and posts wasn’t a good idea.
The track record isn’t great here, so good luck with this.
^^^ THIS ^^^
Great point
um, yes.
+1
I totally agree. I find it hard to wish this couple well, or expect the relationship to last, all things considered.
I heard they were cheating with each other while he was still married, then he just stopped coming home and stayed with Cheryl and they were papp’d everywhere together. It must have been hard for his wife to handle the national publicity, then supposedly he made it hard for her financially and legally because he wanted out. It must have been awful for Mary in those last few months before she took her own life. I feel such sadness for her.
Love when people get involved with serial cheaters and think they’re so special that it won’t happen to them. Not going to stop with you Cheryl. I’m going to generously give this marriage 5 years.
Ditto.
ITA, Froggy!
With such a sordid past and so many suspicious deaths, perhaps marrying into the Kennedy clan isn’t the best of ideas.
^^Truth.
I don’t like RK Jr at all.
He’s one of those dangerously crazy anti-vaccinators who still supported Andrew Wakefield’s theories long after the British Medical Council revoked his license. Often to be found in Jenny McCarthy’s company. Writing on HuffPo, the hotbed of esoteric quackery and uninformed charlatanism.
Oooh, I had forgotten about all the anti-vax stuff. This guy is a menace.
Jesus, this just gets better! Nasty man.
She’s going into it knowing all this baggage. It must be love-at least on her part. Good luck!
I don’t like either of them. He, for specific reasons as stated above, and she for her character on Suburgatory. It would have been a better show without her, but it wasn’t that great to begin with. Jane Levy is a true beauty and should go on to do more good work. Jeremy Sisto is also kind of cute and has surprising range. He played a very convincing psycho on Six Feet Under. I think he’s underrated. Sorry for going off topic.
Totally agree. She made that show completely unwatchable for me.
I met him years ago at a cocktail party. He was still married to Mary at the time. He was very charming and seemed nice. The main thing I noticed about him was how much he eyeballed the ladies in attendance. I was a a pretty hot twentysomething and all I could think was “eeeww”
I find it kind of…searching for a word…unsettling. Not the age difference (that’s nothing) but the ex-wife thing. Not real clear on the timeline of when Kennedy started dating Hines and whether or not that was a factor in his divorce (despite his blaming it on her mental illness). But we do know that they were dating while Kennedy was going through his contentious, bitter divorce. I am not sure I could do that. And then, as we all know, Mary committed suicide which neatly tied up all that messy divorce stuff. Personally, I don’t know that I – as the new woman – could avoid wondering if I was a factor in the suicide…that my mere presence put an already mentally fragile woman over the edge. I don’t know…like I said, it’s unsettling.
I agree with everything you said!
I agree — and the age difference is not a big deal. JFK and Jackie were the same difference (12 years) and it wasn’t obvious, nor their biggest marital issue.
Wow. I don’t agree with the anti-vaccination stance, but RFK Jr has done some very commendable environmental work, in particular with water-related issues; he never made himself front and center but worked hard behind the scenes in that regard. I met him at a presentation and was blown away by his factual knowledge of the issues, and – talk about charisma! That guy walks into a room and ALL eyes are on him – and I don’t mean in an erotic way (alone). He just is super-charged. A good friend of mine who organized the event – and it was a Big Deal – said that she had never worked with somebody who was so modest, so committed, and so reliable. I hadn’t heard about his wife’s suicide until now – very sad, but I agree with the more reasonable posts above, in which RFK surely can’t be blamed for everything.
I’m not at all familiar with the guy’s record but I’ m sure he’s not behaved well at all times in his personal life. But neither have other members of his family. However, the Kennedys did contribute many positives in their political careers: the multi-racial crowds standing by the rail tracks as RFK senior’s body was transported after his assassination for example is very moving and a testament to him. Not sure this guy will contribute anything like as much of course. In an ideal world politicians would be morally unimpeachable but we aren’t in that world.
That entire generation of Kennedy men have proven to be such slimeballs, and Robert Junior has been no exception. Icky. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to marry one of them.
I couldn’t agree more. Good luck Cheryl, watch your back.
Good luck to her. No way would I go near the Kennedy clan, but perhaps she will fare better than so many others.
He’s also an anti-vaxxer. That would be enough to hit the “reject” button for me.
No one is responsible for another’s mental health. To say a person should stick with a mentally challenged person when they can not cope or even deal is unfair to them both.
I think this.
His last wife killed herself for her own reasons. We shouldn’t get into blaming other people, so the part about “, you’re still getting engaged to a guy whose last wife killed herself. ”
so what, like, Julia Roberts family should ditch ehr cause her sister blamed Julia for her suicide?
I don’t think so.
That part really bothers me 🙁 sorry.
I don’t think anyone thinks that he was obligated to stay with his mentally ill wife or that he is to blame for her suicide, so much as commenting on the fact that he is a total and complete sleaze, and his actions in their divorce simply do not speak well of him (which is practically a Kennedy tradition at this point) and couldnt have been easy on the wife he knew to be unstable. Again, it most definitely doesn’t make him culpable for Mary’s choice to end her life, but it does make him an icky person (another Kennedy tradition!).
I realize this is ageist but I’m 49 and I really wouldn’t want to sleep with a 60-year old yet. Give me the ones closer to my age.
My mom was 12 years younger than my dad and they were very happily married for 35 years until he passed away.
I am only 38 and I dated a 62 year old architect for a few months. He was a committed, selfless, sensual, experienced HOT lover…don’t diss the oldies! Plus his body was in excellent shape 😉
I dated a much older guy couple of years ago (he was around 60 at the time) and he was the best lover I’ve ever had. Very good shape and nice skin too.
@it’s just blanche: I can certainly see you point (and agree totally with it)
to all others: it’s blanche didn’t diss the oldies she just said that it’s not HER cup of tea something we should all respect for others. If some can like the senior citizens some can perfectly don’t like them as love interest.
to each their own… in both ways
I don’t know much about him, but it sounds like a tricky situation. I like Cheryl, so I’m just going to wish her good luck.
He’s 60 already?! No way!
Wouldn’t touch anything close to the Kennedy’s with a 100 foot pole. They are not honorable people, actually, they are awful people, the whole lot of them.
The only decent Kennedy man I’ve heard of JFK jr. I suppose all the good ones die. But Good Lord–he was HOT. That man was beautiful. I wish he was still alive.
I know.. I remember vividly the summer he died, To this day I feel sadness just thinking about it. He was a really sweet guy.
John John had his troubles too with rumored cocaine use contributing to his airplane crash and infidelities on both sides during his marriage. However, by all accounts JFK Jr. was a good man who did public service right. Even on a personal level, he worked to make a real difference in people lives.
Virgie and Minx, John was a beautiful person, inside and out, and is sorely missed.
Agree. JFK jr. was the hottest guy ever!
Holy glow in the dark teefs!
I am so happy you wrote this! I felt terrible for thinking it, but when I saw the first picture my initial response was ‘yikes’ followed by ‘those teeth look like Chiclets!’ …
Maybe Tay Tay will crash their wedding
@Zombie Shortcake – One can only hope.
Bob was a classmate of mine at Pomfret School in Connecticut (1970-1971). He was doing a lot of acid and Jackie O came to plead his case. Nope, he got expelled. About six months later, he and his cousin, Joe, ran a jeep off the road, paralyzing a girl for life. Years later, he was using heroin. GOOD LUCK, CHERYL.
Oh man, what scum. Sumodo1, I always wondered if he had anything to do with Mary’s ‘suicide’.
After all, it’s well known horrible gossip the Kennedy brothers passed around Marilyn Monroe and had something to do with her death. The two of them being assassinated didn’t exactly quell my tin foil hatted conspiracy theories either. Then, you have the lobotomy of an ‘imperfect’ Kennedy woman, Chappaquiddick, and an acquitted rapist; it all adds up to a really dark vein of evil running through their family since the founding of their bootlegging fortune.
Don’t forget about Kennedy cousin & convicted murderer Michael Skakel.
The Kennedy empire was built upon bootlegging during prohibition so it’s safe to assume that they’re responsible for many more deaths during that era.
Oh yeah, Tippy. I see no discernible difference between the Kennedys, Al Capone, the infamous gangsters of prohibition, and today’s Corporate Elite scourge of a just and free society.
They totally whitewashed the fact that they are nothing but a Mob Family who managed to buy their way into ‘respectability’ by way of politics, history books, and the public’s short memory.
The Kennedys are in fact no different from their elite Robber Baron compatriots who are making power grabs that make the Gilded Age look quaint.
Yeah, there are a lot of rotten apples in that family. That said, Cheryl is no doubt well aware of the kind of man she’s with, which means she’s very likely cut from the same cloth.
The pickins’ must be slim in tinseltown for Cheryl to marry him.
I see teeth!
People say he’s not responsible for her mental health, but if your vows mean anything to you, you don’t leave when people are ill, certainly when you have the resources to see to it that they get the help they need. You also don’t decide you can’t cope but it’s perfectly fine to leave the kids there to deal with it. As an adult you don’t want to be there, but hey, I’ll bet that 12 year old will be fine.
He’s a dirtbag, she’s stupid to think she’ll be treated any differently than he has treated his other wives. I won’t be feeling sorry for her when this blows up in her face. She wants him, good luck with it.
Cheryl Hines, you In Danger Girl! Remember your fiancé’s scorched-earth divorce? What he did to her he’ll do to you.
For months and months, Kennedy relentlessly accused Mary of abuse, child endangerment, all the while withholding financial support. His divorce petition outlines how his scorched – earth divorce “litigation tactics” caused Mary to live with daily financial struggles, even though he had agreed to continue to pay her household and legal expenses by giving her a credit card with a monthly limit. When he failed to live up to that agreement, she was put in a position of having to ask friends and family for financial help, and she had to “scrounge for cash the final months of her life.” Add to that Kennedy’s accusations of child endangerment and Mary, a loving mother, could only see her children during supervised visitation.
Robert Kennedy destroyed or dismantled everything he could in his mission to systematically pulverize Mary. He worked tirelessly to deprive her of shelter, food, natural resources, her children, her livelihood, her social circle, and her reputation. He succeeded.
RobN, there’s no way Cheryl doesn’t know what she’s going into, but she probably thinks she can change him or is simply dazzled by the money and the lifestyle.
A friend of mine from university killed herself some years ago. After her death, her mother and some friends were blaming it all on her second husband. To be honest, I knew the first (which was said to be violent at the time of their separation) and barely the second. But I remember feeling so sorry for him, hearing all the horrible things said about him.
She was suffering, really suffering, from mental illness and had to stay for months in a mental hospital. She refused to ever go back. In her last years, she would alternatively have fits of violent rage and crises of deep despair. He was blamed for not being patient and supportive enough. For having slapped her once.
The last time I saw her; she was throwing plates and every dishes she could find and screaming like a banshee. We just had had a perfectly normal and nice meal. Then she started for no apparent reason. I couldn’t take it and left after one short half an hour. He stayed for years, and was still harshly criticized after her death.
Since then, I’m less judgemental about the person who can not stay and give their spouse or family member some support. It is difficult and definitively not for everyone.
I had the interesting opportunity to meet him as he was keynote speaker at a conference for the organization I was working for several years ago. He tries to be the humble regular guy but he’s NOT. He shows up without an entourage then yells at everyone because his schedule doesn’t run like clockwork. He’d booked a flight out of Toronto with not enough time to get out of the downtown core at rush hour to the airport and started screaming at our staff for not getting his limo there on time (we had nothing to do with booking it, his “people” back in the U.S. did).
During his speech he banged on interminably about all sorts of ecological issues he was involved with despite the fact that he was at that conference to speak to the college sector in Ontario, Canada but spoke of nothing to do with the benefits of a college education.
Very weird guy – oh, and he has some sort of neurological disorder that has rendered his vocal cords basically non-functional so he talks in this gravelly, growly voice that sounds like he has an advanced case of laryngitis.
That’s my RFK Jr. story.
What an Ass! Thanks for the great gossip, Jaded.
I think its inappropriate to blame him for her wife’s mental health-no matter how horrible their relationship could have been, a mentally healthy person does not kill themselves in the situation his wife was in. She wasn’t in a culture or environment where leaving her husband would have meant her family disowning her, or she could not have financially supported herself if she left him-divorcing a kennedy means you’ll get good money especially when child support is involved. what i would be concerned about is RFK jr. cheating, he has admitted to having that weakness in the past. but maybe cheryl is okay with her relationship not being manogamous
I wouldn’t blame him for his wife’s troubles. Sounds like she was having earlier issues (eating disorder) and then unhappy marriage aggravated her condition. The trouble is that in those circles admitting to a problem (whether it’s mental illness or alcoholism) is very, very hard. I’ve been around old New England families enough to know that many older wives (ladies who never worked a day in their lives, never had to worry about money, had kids sent to boarding schools, had houskeepers and devoted their days to garden club) are often either depressed or alcoholic. Mental illness is rampant.. seriously! But they all tend to be either in denial or feel it’s a personal thing, not something one should talk about in the open.
Maybe his age will cure his zipper problem but it isn’t likely to improve his character. His support of murderous cousin Michael & rapist cousin Will plus his previous blatant affairs & poor treatment of his kids’ mothers add up to very bad news in my book. I have no opinion about bride-to-be-#3 except to note that she’s old enough to have been raised while the Camelot myth still had some appeal & be impressed by the family name & thus proximity to what is either prestige or notoriety, depending on one’s view.
He is sinister and has a narcissistic heart. Cheryl is fooling herself if she thinks that over time, the spots are not going to come out on the leopard.
Happy Belated Mother’s Day, Mom! Guess who I’m marrying?
That second picture… YIKES.