Cheryl Hines is opening up about how she and husbandRobert F. Kennedy Jr. got through his now-infamous sexting scandal.

In her recently released memoir,Unscripted, Hines shared how she first learned the news of Kennedy'salleged digital affair with journalistOlivia Nuzzi. At the time, Kennedy was on the campaign trail, trying to stay in the running for the 2024 presidential election. Hines and her daughters had decided to take a break from the grueling schedule and travel to Italy.

"Bobby called to warn me of another breaking story," she wrote. "At first, it was an ambiguous story about a political journalist who said she had some communication with a former reporting subject that had turned personal, also stating that it was never physical. There was a lot of speculation that she was referring to Bobby. The press was running wild with it."

"I'm sure I wasn't seeing the full scope of the coverage, but I was seeing most of it. Of course, I hated all of it. The swirl of headlines, rumors, and insinuations was upsetting and overwhelming. I had hit a wall."

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Nuzzi, then 31, wasplaced on leave byNew York magazine after reports about her relationship with Kennedy — which reportedly began on the campaign trail — went public.

In a September 2024 statement to PEOPLE, the magazine's Washington correspondent admitted that “the nature of some communication” between herself and “a former reporting subject turned personal,” though she added that she “did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source” during that time.

"The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict,” Nuzzi said at the time. “I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York."

The following month,New York announced thatNuzzi was no longer employed with the publication. She has since been hired as the West Coast editor forVanity Fair.

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Initially, Hines said, her first reaction was "indifference." Kennedy had already faced scrutiny for his controversial vaccine views, which got so bad that he had offered Hines a "fake separation" so as not to let the negative press about him hurt her acting career. This seemed to be just another of the invasive consequences of public life.

"A presidential election is a big business," Hines, 60, wrote. "It seems like the people who put themselves in the middle of it get addicted to all the negative energies. They fan each other's embers until one catches fire. While that fire is burning, someone else is sparking a new flame so there's always something blazing."

However, the longer she stayed in Italy, the more unsettled she became.

"This latest story was leaving me with the feeling of being unimportant to him," she recalled. "It felt like a game people were playing and I wasn't interested in participating. It was the end of the line for me."

Eventually, the actress returned home, and Kennedy, then 70, picked her up at the airport so they could talk.

"I felt so distant from him," she said. "It seemed like the only threads that were connecting me to him were directly tied to all of our kids. I loved each one of them so much. I respected and adored them too much not to listen to what Bobby had to say."

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Despite her concerns, the couple began the hard work of repairing their relationship. "For the next few days, we stopped everything and drilled down on the truth. We locked ourselves in our room and laid it all on the table."

"We talked about all of the painful times we'd been through in the last few years and what we meant to each other," Hines shared. "We analyzed how we had become disconnected and what had kept us together. We went through all of the details about the latest story — what was true and what wasn't. Through those soul-searching days, we tightened our ties that bind."

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While the couple has worked on their relationship in the months since, the scandal has continued to follow Hines. She admitted that she was upset withan Oct. 14 appearance onThe View; having come on the show to promote her book, she was primarily asked questions about her husband.

“You know, I was actually hoping that it was going to be more personal on The View," Hines told Billy Bush on his Hot Micspodcast a few weeks later. "But it was what it was."

In Hines' opinion, theView hosts — Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin — "just wanted to grill me about Bobby.”

"I mean, I don’t think the ladies on The View asked me one question about my book," she added. "But, you know, that’s okay.”

Unscripted is out now.