Friendship breakups are rough, and it seems that comedian Tig Notaro is still reeling from the one she had with Cheryl Hines.

On Monday’s episode of MS NOW’s podcast “The Best People,” host Nicolle Wallace asked the “One Mississippi” star about her falling out with her longtime friend and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” alum.

Notaro placed the blame squarely on Hines’ husband, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and how Hines “shifted very severely” into embracing MAGA values.

“I had to kind of shake myself out of denial that, ‘Oh, she’s gone,’ and, ‘Oh, OK, I need to let this go. I need to let it go,’” Notaro said. “I was trying to be a friend to her [despite her MAGA ties]. ...But it’s been very strange, and I think I’ve moved past the confusion and sadness.”

When Wallace mentioned to Notaro later in the episode that Kennedy and Hines’ values could threaten “people you love, or your own family,” Notaro responded with:

“I know it threatens people I love.”

Notaro added: “It goes beyond, ‘I think it could.’ I know it does.”

“When you see people’s choices that are so confusing,” Notaro continued later, “and flipping so wildly on topics that you thought they valued, and then you realize ... ‘Was there really any heel dug in on any area? In any area?’”

From 2020 to 2023, Notaro and Hines co-hosted the podcast “Tig & Cheryl: True Story,” in which the duo would essentially have extremely silly conversations about documentaries.

The Oscar-nominated comedian noted to Wallace that a video recently “popped up” on her phone that reminded her of how quickly Hines seemed to change.

“Cheryl and I were very drawn to each other just with nonsense and silliness, and we would have the deepest, hardest laughs. And this video popped up a couple of weeks ago of when we had our podcast. We were doing a streaming episode and doing shots and slapping each other in the face with tortillas. And I was just looking at it going, ‘Man, that was just three years ago.’”

Notaro told Wallace that although her friendship with Hines “predated Bobby” it began to get rocky in 2023, when there were rumblings that Kennedy may run for president. Notaro said that although she doesn’t share the same views as Kennedy, she began getting heckled by fans at her stand-up shows just for her proximity to him.

“I know it’s a small percentage that pushes back online or yells out at shows, but I was like, ‘Man, this is not my world. I don’t do this. I don’t want to be a part of this.’ And she was like, ‘I understand,’” Notaro said.

“I think that I needed to stop doing the podcast, because it was so ridiculous, it was so stupid — our show — that it was hard to be doing that when he was gaining momentum and speaking,” Notaro said. “I had to step away, but I loved her so much.”

Notaro quit the podcast in May 2023, just a month after Kennedy launched his 2024 presidential campaign.

This is not the first time Notaro has publicly grieved her friendship with Hines. She made similar remarks to the “Breaking Bread With Tom Papa” podcast last year, in which she also stressed that she was friends with Hines before she married Kennedy in 2014.

“Beliefs he had were like a gnat on my arm,” Notaro said of Kennedy. “But then it started to grow, and Cheryl wanted me to hear Bobby out. They had these good ideas, and I was like, ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’ I just didn’t trust it. And then he endorsed Trump, and then it just got hard.”

Hines has also spoken publicly about her and Notaro’s friendship ending.

“When it was feeling a lot for her, there wasn’t much I could do about it other than leave my husband,” Hines told Howie Mandel on his podcast last year.

It should be noted that Hines did express grief over her falling out with Notaro while speaking with Mandel, despite his many attempts to get her to speak badly of Notaro. Hines did engage in the smack talk a bit by eventually implying that she was responsible for Notaro’s career.

“This is what she feels she needs to do for herself,” Hines said. “And she feels she needs to distance herself from me.”

Yet, Notaro told Wallace on Monday that she did try to retain her friendship with Hines even after she left their now-defunct podcast.

The comedian said she’d often send Hines “love and support,” and Hines would respond “very pleasantly,” but after a while, she started to notice that their interactions were becoming one-sided.

“I realized one day that she doesn’t ever reach out to me anymore. She responds to me, but she doesn’t reach out to me,” Notaro said.

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