Already under fire for his Olivia Nuzzi sexting scandal, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been hit with new allegations of cheating on his wife Cheryl Hines, with three women affiliated with his anti-vaccine organization saying they had affairs with him in the past 12 months.
The new claims are reported in Mediaite, which said it had been spoken to two sources with direct knowledge of the women’s accounts. Mediaite reported that the women shared their stories in text messages, and the outlet said it had reviewed and obtained texts messages from one of the women, in which she detailed her alleged relationship with the 70-year-old Kennedy, as he campaigned for president .
The three women know Kennedy through the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group that he chairs and that he used as a springboard for his failed, long-shot presidential bid, as the Daily Beast also reported. Mediaite said that people close to the Kennedy family fear that the new cheating allegations could jeopardize his standing in Donald Trump’s campaign, as the former president and 2024 Republican nominee fights to win the support of suburban women.
Olivia Nuzzi (left), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines. (Getty) Getty
In a statement to Mediaite, a spokesperson for Kennedy denied that he has had any romantic relationships outside of his marriage to Hines. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor is Kennedy’s third wife and is reportedly considering divorce in the wake of his alleged sexting relationship with political journalist Nuzzi.
“This story is untrue,” the spokesperson said about the Mediaite report on the women’s affair allegations. “Mr. Kennedy has had no romantic relationships with any woman other than his wife since their marriage.”
But Nuzzi and people close to her have told a different story. Nuzzi, 31, last month acknowledged that she had a “personal” relationship with Kennedy while covering his campaign, after New York magazine announced that she had placed her on leave due to the relationship being “in violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.”
While Nuzzi said the relationship never became “physical,” subsequent bombshell reports have said that the romance consisted of an exchange of pornographic images. The New York Post reported that the son of Robert F. Kennedy, and the nephew of John F. Kennedy, began the sexting relationship shortly after Nuzzi interviewed him for a New York magazine profile that was published in November 2023 — though sources close to Kennedy also told the Post that she aggressively pursued him.
Page Six offered a different view of the relationship last week, reporting that Kennedy “love bombed” Nuzzi. The two enjoyed “incredible,” steamy FaceTime sessions and the journalist told friends that she was impressed with the 70-year-old’s “sexual stamina.” Mediaite’s report also mentioned Kennedy’s “love bombing” tendencies, saying that’s what happened with women he knew through the Children’s Defense Fund.
“There are a number of women in the ‘health freedom’ movement who thought of themselves as Bobby’s only one, and I’m quite sure they are angry and shocked to find out they weren’t,” a source told Mediaite. “After talking to some of these women, I think what he does is just love bombs them. He makes them feel important, even tells them he loves them, and so they all feel special and wanted.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, waves to the crowd as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Hines has reportedly reached her limits with her husband of 10 years, according to Jerry Oppenheimer, Kennedy’s biographer. Writing in the Daily Mail, Oppenheimer said that the TV actor was “blindsided” by his alleged romance with the much-younger journalist and is considering divorce. Page Six also reported that Hines, a lifelong Democrat, is dismayed by her husband’s newfound position in Trump’s MAGA universe.
“Cheryl was always very aware that Bobby had a long history of womanizing,” a friend told Oppenheimer, the author of the 2015 book, “RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream.” “She herself had become very publicly involved with him when he was still married to his second wife, so his playing around wasn’t anything new to her.”
“However, she firmly believed Bobby, in his seventh decade and with political aspirations, finally had his sex demons under control,” the friend continued.
“She adored being a member of America’s royal family, and having the famous Kennedy name attached to hers, but now she’s thoroughly embarrassed and furious about his adulterous actions and (friends) believe she wants out,” the friend also told Oppenheimer.
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In addition to Kennedy reportedly jeopardizing his third marriage, his alleged philandering could wreck his political aspirations in a potential new Trump administration, according to Mediaite.
Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump in the hopes of securing a role in a new Trump White House. He and Trump spoke about the possibility of him serving as secretary of Health and Human Services, a powerful cabinet-level position, Mediaite said.
But the scandal swirling around Kennedy over his relationship with Nuzzi is seen as “an issue” for Trump’s campaign and his top advisers and donors, particularly given the former reality TV star’s own history of womanizing, a campaign source told Mediaite. Trump also has faced scrutiny in recent weeks over his association with Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who traveled with his campaign for several days last month. Loomer was put in the position of having to deny an affair with the candidate.
“Trump is concerned (about Kennedy),” the source told Mediaite. He’s “concerned that there are more women, and that more affairs will come out. Right now, they are waiting to see if the news cycle will blow over, but it won’t, which has Trump reconsidering Bobby’s value.”
Any extramarital relationship could also doom Kennedy’s ability to obtain a security clearance to serve in Trump’s cabinet, a top Republican political operative told Mediaite. “Affairs cannot get a security clearance at higher level government appointment jobs because they can be used as blackmail,” the operative told Mediaite.
Kennedy has long been dogged by allegations of infidelity and acknowledged in a 2023 podcast interview that he’s “not a church boy” and that he has “many skeletons in my closet,” the Daily Beast reported. Kennedy is also a recovering heroin addict.
Oppenheimer wrote in the Daily Mail that Kennedy’s “obsessive womanizing” contributed to the failure of his first two marriages.
The New York Post famously reported in 2013 that Kennedy kept a diary that detailed his sexual relationships with dozens of other women while married to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. Kennedy’s diary ended up in the hands of the New York Post after Richardson died by suicide in 2012.
“And now it appears his third marriage, with Hines, is nearing an end because of the sexting affair,” Oppenheimer wrote.
