Tig Notaro: Biography, Wife, Kids, Cheryl Hines Fallout

A few years ago, if you heard Tig Notaro’s name, it was probably followed by a standing ovation after a comedy set about cancer and loss. These days, the same name surfaces in headlines about a very public friendship breakup and questions about her family life.

Full name: Mathilde (Tig) Notaro ·
Born: March 24, 1971 ·
Spouse: Stephanie Allynne ·
Children: 2 (twins) ·
Known for: Stand-up comedy, deadpan humor ·
Notable album: Live (2012)

Is Tig Notaro a female or male?

The question comes up often enough that it deserves a direct answer. Tig Notaro is a cisgender female. She has never publicly identified otherwise, and the confusion typically stems from her androgynous stage presence and deep voice.

Tig Notaro’s gender identity

• Born Mathilde Notaro in Jackson, Mississippi — she goes by the nickname “Tig” given by her brother (IMDb (biographical summary)).
• In interviews, including a 2022 conversation with Kate Bowler, she has spoken openly about being a woman navigating the comedy world (Kate Bowler podcast).

Public perception and clarification

• Notaro herself has gently addressed the curiosity: “I don’t mind the question, but I am a woman.” (paraphrased from multiple interviews).
• Her Wikipedia page and all major profiles consistently use she/her pronouns.

What this means: The question persists largely because of visual and vocal cues that don’t match stereotypes, but Notaro has been consistent and unambiguous about her gender identity for her entire career.

Are Tig’s kids biologically hers?

Notaro and her wife Stephanie Allynne became parents in 2016, but the biology behind their twins Max and Finn is more nuanced than many assume.

Surrogacy process

• The couple used a gestational surrogate to carry their twins (CBS News).
• According to Wikipedia, the twins were conceived using Allynne’s eggs (Wikipedia (surrogacy details)).
• Notaro and Allynne announced the pregnancy in January 2016; the twins were born on June 26, 2016 (CBS News (timeline)).

Biological relationship

• Tig is not the biological mother — Stephanie Allynne contributed the eggs, making her the gestational and genetic mother of at least one of the twins.
• Exact details about which twin came from which egg have not been publicly confirmed.

The pattern: Notaro has been open about the journey — the Netflix documentary Tig (2015) documented their attempts to conceive, showing the vulnerability behind the jokes.

Are Cheryl and Tig still friends?

After co-hosting the podcast Tig & Cheryl: True Story for three years, the friendship between Notaro and actress Cheryl Hines unraveled in 2024. The cause? Politics.

Reason for the rift

• Notaro ended the friendship after Hines publicly supported her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and later aligned with Donald Trump’s administration (People (friendship fallout)).
• According to The Advocate, Notaro said: “I just can’t be friends with someone who supports that” (The Advocate (Notaro’s statement)).

Public statements

• Notaro discussed the split on her podcast Don’t Ask Tig, expressing disappointment that a friendship predating Hines’s marriage ended over political alignment (USA Today (timeline)).
• She left the podcast in May 2023, though the show had already stopped producing new episodes in 2023 (Variety (podcast comments)).

The implication: This wasn’t a slow drift. It was a sharp line drawn in a high-profile friendship, and Notaro used her platform to explain exactly why.

What is the age gap between Stephanie and Tig?

Age-gap curiosity often surfaces with celebrity couples, and Notaro and Allynne are no exception.

Ages of both partners

• Tig Notaro was born March 24, 1971 (IMDb (birth date)).
• Stephanie Allynne was born October 25, 1986 (Wikipedia (partner’s birth date)).
• Age gap: 15 years and 7 months.

Relevance to their relationship

• The couple met on the set of In a World… (2013) and married in October 2015 (CBS News (marriage date)).
• Neither has publicly described the age gap as a challenge; they have instead focused on parenthood and shared creative projects.

Why this matters: The 15-year gap is notable but not unusual in celebrity circles. What stands out more is that both partners have maintained separate careers — Allynne as an actress and writer, Notaro as a comedian — while building a family together.

What did Tig say about Cheryl?

Notaro’s comments about the end of her friendship with Hines were among the most direct statements of her career.

Tig’s podcast comments

• On her podcast Don’t Ask Tig, Notaro said she was “heartbroken” but resolute: “I just can’t be friends with someone who supports that” — referring to Hines’s alignment with RFK Jr. and Trump (The Advocate (full quote)).
• She emphasized that the friendship predated Hines’s marriage to RFK Jr., making the political pivot feel like a betrayal.

Media coverage

• People magazine quoted Notaro reflecting on the “very strange” nature of the fallout and the difficulty of maintaining ties when core values diverge (People (reflection)).
• Variety noted that the podcast had already ended in 2023, making the public breakup a postscript to a professional split (Variety (context)).

“I just can’t be friends with someone who supports that.”

— Tig Notaro, Don’t Ask Tig podcast, via The Advocate

What to watch: Notaro has not closed the door entirely, but she has made her boundary clear. Any future reconciliation would require a political shift from Hines — something that remains unlikely.

Tig Notaro’s story is one of constant transformation — from a comedian grappling with cancer to a wife and mother navigating surrogacy, and now to a public figure drawing hard lines around friendship and politics. For fans of her deadpan humor, the implication is clear: the same honesty that fuels her best material also governs her personal life. Whether that leads to new comedy gold or further fallout, one thing is certain — Notaro will keep talking about it, unfiltered, on her own terms.