Although most actors have remained silent about the matter, Hines is now under attack. One wit, mocking her use of the word “presidency”, wrote “I didn’t realize he was president. Or in your worm-eaten brains, maybe he already was.”

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Other social media users have been quick to pillory Hines. “You suck,” one complained. “I can’t even enjoy the episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm with you in them any more”, while another, either deliberately blending fact and fiction or acting out of confusion, declared that “It’s no wonder Larry divorced you”. There have also been many statements of support for Hines, but these have come almost exclusively from Trump supporters.

David himself has not made any comment on his screen wife’s current predicament, but as one of Hollywood’s most high-profile liberals, his contempt for Trump is possibly a given. Yet, the actor and comedian’s views on Hines and RFK Jr are of more than usual interest; David, after all, was instrumental to their relationship, having introduced them in the first place.

As RFK Jr put it in an interview earlier this year, he felt that it would be disrespectful to date David’s “television wife” without permission, and so met David in a hotel to discuss matters. The curmudgeonly comedian, in his recollection, was “very happy” about their relationship and told him that “Cheryl was the best person that he’d ever met” and that “she was the only [person] in Hollywood who didn’t have a single enemy”. When he spoke to Hines about the relationship, David was rather more blunt. “That’ll never work.”

The ever-affable Hines now regularly finds herself apologising on her husband’s behalf. At a 2022 anti-vaccination rally, RFK caused controversy with the statement: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank.” Hines took to Twitter: “My husband’s reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in DC was reprehensible and insensitive,” she said. “His opinions are not a reflection of my own.” She later expressed regret for this, saying “If I had to do it all over again, would I use such strong words? Probably not.”

She has also been consistent in her contempt for RFK Jr’s new ally. “Even when Trump was elected, I had to really have a long talk with myself because I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it through these four years”, and joking that, in the event of Trump attacking her husband on the campaign trail, “I’ll be in Greece. With no reception. That’s my plan.”

In the event, the attacks have come from the Democratic side rather than the Republicans. RFK Jr’s own family denounced his decision to endorse Trump as “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear” and implicitly cast him out of the clan, calling it “a sad ending to a sad story”. And certainly, Hines has steadfastly defended her husband, even when asked about his more baroque conspiracy theories. “I would think that you would see the world through a different lens if you saw your uncle be assassinated, then your father,” she has said, quite reasonably.

She is now in an impossible and unenviable position. Previously, she emphasised that she forbade her husband to associate with the extreme likes of Steve Bannon and Alex Jones. “Bobby will talk to anybody and wants to connect with everybody. I understand where he is coming from,” she said. “But I also have my limits.” Larry David has been asked whether his friendship with both Hines and Kennedy might translate into an endorsement, which led to this pitch-perfect answer: “I love and support [Bobby], but I’m not ‘supporting’ him.”

Hines has no such luxury. “I’ve learned a lot in the last two years,” she told the Hollywood Reporter in early 2024. “I pay less attention to social media. There’s a cycle to news. Things spike, they talk about it for one or two days, then they move on. And so I’ve learned to stay out of it because my words live on. And because Bobby’s my husband. And I would never want to hurt Bobby. I love him.”

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Even when the controversy dies down, Hines is likely to be reminded of one of husband’s comments in particular. If he accepted a position as Trump’s running mate, he said, “that would be devastating to my marriage”. To which his wife pointedly replied: “I think Bobby knows me very well.”

More than any scene with Larry David, the coming months may be the true test of her acting skills.

The Telegraph, UK