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Cheryl Hines is facing backlash after posting a video of her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and human services, showing him partially naked in the shower.
Hines posted the video on her Instagram Stories, also apparently promoting a line of "MAHA" or Make America Healthy Again candles for her self-care product company Hines+Young for Black Friday.
"No! You can't take a shower, I'm doing a video!" Hines yelled at Kennedy. "No, no, no, I'm doing a... you've gotta give me a second I'm doing a video for Hines+Young. Honey... 60 percent off."
The entire time, the 70-year-old Kennedy goes about his shower, seemingly unbothered by Hines' presence. "Oh Bobby," the video was captioned, followed by heart and smiley face emojis.
The video provoked some criticism on social media. "Cheryl Hines went from being tacitly complicit to actively participating," the Republicans Against Trump X account wrote, accompanied by the vomiting emoji. "I've now lost all respect for her."
"The MAGA grift runs deep," former NBCUniversal executive Mike Sington wrote. "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears in a promotional video showering to help his wife Cheryl Hines hawk self-care products. Get ready for four years of this."
"Can MAGA just not be weird for like one day?....this is gross," online political commentator Dog House Show commented.
Newsweek has contacted Kennedy and Hines for comment via email.
Hines, who is an actress, was not a prominent supporter of her husband on the campaign trail.
Kennedy previously told TMZ that his endorsement of Trump was "difficult" for Hines.
"This is a really difficult issue for Cheryl," Kennedy said in August. "This is the opposite of what she would want to do.
"She went along with it because she loves me and she wanted to be supportive of me, but it was not something that she ever encouraged. I would say, her trepidation about this and her discomfort with this were the dominant feelings."
"She's a life-long Democrat," he added.
Earlier this year, when a Variety reporter asked Kennedy whether he would accept an offer to be Trump's running mate, he pointed at Hines and said: "I don't think that my marriage would survive it."
Hines responded: "I think he's right."
After Kennedy suspended his campaign in August, Hines released a statement where she said she had "deep respect" for her husband's decision to run for president.
"I deeply respect the decision Bobby made to run on the principle of unity. Over the last year and a half, I have met some extraordinary people from all parties—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It's been my experience that the vast majority of all parties are truly good people who want the best for our country and for each other. It has been an eye-opening, transformative, and endearing journey," she said in a post on X.
According to Page Six, she was seen at Mar-a-Lago on Election Night. She was also reportedly seen mingling with Trump supporters during the America First Policy Institute gala mid-November.
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About the writer
Martha McHardy is a U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on polling and California politics. She ... Read more