The comedian Tig Notaro has been speaking candidly about the end of a longtime friendship with actress Cheryl Hines, and why she chose to step away from their joint project. The pair co-hosted Tig & Cheryl: True Story from 2026 to 2026, a lighthearted show built around watching and riffing on documentaries. Over time, however, public developments involving Hines’ husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., began to complicate that dynamic and eventually influenced Notaro’s decision to leave the show.
Notaro first explained her choice last October and revisited the topic in a recent conversation on Nicole Wallace’s podcast, The Best People. She described a shift from casual disagreement to a situation that made continuing the podcast feel untenable for her. Fans and critics began connecting her publicly to views she did not share, and the resulting attention started appearing during her live stand-up shows as heckling and interruptions. In her telling, that crescendo of reaction coincided with well-publicized moves by Kennedy that broadened his platform.
Why the podcast era ended
At the center of the split was a choice about creative work and personal integrity. Notaro said she could no longer host a show that existed in a context where her association with Hines had become a lightning rod. The comedian framed her decision as practical and personal: she found the environment created by the association distracting and out of step with the tone of their podcast. The hosts’ program was intentionally silly and irreverent, yet the real-world developments created what Notaro called a mismatch between the show’s spirit and the surrounding public conversation.
In interviews she has noted that the turning point arrived as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved into the national spotlight — including his announcement in April 2026 that he intended to run for president — and later when he publicly backed another major candidate. Notaro said the latter endorsement, reported in various outlets as occurring in August 2026, made it increasingly fraught for her to remain publicly tethered to that household. For her, the decision to leave the show was not a repudiation of Hines as a person but a boundary around what she could comfortably participate in as a performer.
The unraveling of a close friendship
Attempts to preserve the relationship
Notaro has emphasized that the friendship predated Hines’ marriage and that she tried to maintain contact even after leaving the podcast. She recalled reaching out to offer support and to stay connected while recognizing they occupied different public spaces. Despite those efforts, she says the communication became one-sided: Hines would respond to messages but stopped initiating contact. Notaro described the feeling of moving from hope to acceptance — acknowledging that she needed to let the relationship change rather than continuing to wait for it to resume its previous closeness.
Public narratives and misunderstandings
The split also generated media narratives suggesting Notaro had abruptly abandoned Hines because of politics. Notaro disputed that simplification, telling listeners she left the podcast because the public reaction made the project unsustainable for her, and that she continued to care for Hines privately. Still, she expressed disappointment that some coverage framed her as the person who walked away without trying to preserve the friendship. That mismatch between private intention and public narrative added to the emotional difficulty of the break.
Aftermath and perspective
After Notaro departed, Hines briefly continued the podcast with comedian Rachael Harris, but the original pairing of Notaro and Hines ended with that shift. Looking back, Notaro said she loved Hines and that losing the close day-to-day connection was painful, even as she moved beyond confusion and sorrow. She explained that stepping away allowed her to protect her live performances and creative voice from becoming collateral in a larger political conversation, a choice she framed as about boundaries rather than personal animosity.
For audiences watching the arc from the outside, this episode is a reminder of how public life and private relationships can collide when politics enter the conversation. Notaro’s account focuses less on assigning blame than on describing how a shared project and a friendship evolved and then diverged. Her full remarks are available on the episode of The Best People where she goes into greater detail about decision points, the pressure of being associated with a high-profile figure, and the process of accepting a changed relationship.