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'We heard shots and got under the table': Cheryl Hines gives chilling eyewitness account of White House event shooting

Curb Your Enethusiasm star Cheryl Hines was among the attendees at the White House Correspondents' Dinner when a gunman opened fire outside the venue.

Updated on: Apr 26, 2026, 12:31:27 IST
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The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday was interrupted after shots were fired at the grand ballroom hosting the event. Even as President Donald Trump was not injured and there were no fatalities, the shooting incident created a major scare for the US administration as well as the guests present there. Among the attendees was actor Cheryl Hines, who was at the annual media gala in Washington with her husband, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Security officials evacuate U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Cheryl Hines, as a shooter opens fire during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (REUTERS)
Security officials evacuate U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Cheryl Hines, as a shooter opens fire during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (REUTERS)

Cheryl Hines recalls the shooting

Hours after the shooting, Cheryl took to social media to share her first-person account of the incident. Talking to the camera from a bathroom, she recalled, “We were there, and we heard shots, and everybody got under the tables. Nobody knew what was going on.”

Referring to her husband’s security detail, Cheryl added, “Bobby’s security detail surrounded us and took us. They really had to lift me over (the) chairs because I’m in heels and a gown. And they took us through all of the back ways, and we got in the car and left.”

Best known for playing Cheryl David on the sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl is a two-time Emmy nominee. She has also starred in the sitcom Suburgatory and directed a film titled Serious Moonlight. She was most recently seen in the 2024 film Popular Theory in a supporting role. Cheryl began dating RFK Jr in 2011 and married him in 2014. Her husband has been part of the Trump administration since last year, after a failed Presidential election bid in 2024.

All about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

A man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday night, charging toward the ballroom in a chaotic encounter with Secret Service agents as guests dived under tables at the sound of shots being fired.

Police believe he opened fire and acted alone, but did not say who his intended target was or describe a motive. The shooting unfolded just outside the vast subterranean ballroom holding thousands of dinner guests, disrupting minutes after it began an annual event meant to honour journalism and the First Amendment that was being especially scrutinised this year because it was the first time since Trump became president that he had attended.

Hours later, Trump addressed the media in a press conference, still dressed in his tuxedo. In the press meet at the White House, he said, "When you're impactful, they go after you. When you're not impactful, they leave you alone.”

  • Abhimanyu Mathur
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Abhimanyu Mathur

    Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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