Olivia Nuzzi And New York Magazine Part Ways After News Broke Of Her Relationship With Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Reporter Olivia Nuzzi arrives for the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 29, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Reporter Olivia Nuzzi arrives for the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 29, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) STEFANI REYNOLDS via Getty Images

New York magazine and Olivia Nuzzi, the magazine’s political reporter who had a personal relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have parted ways.

“Nuzzi is a uniquely talented writer and we have been proud to publish her work over her nearly eight years as our Washington Correspondent,” the magazine said on its website. “We wish her the best.”

The magazine said it found no inaccuracies or evidence of bias when it enlisted a law firm to review Nuzzi’s published work after she admitted to engaging in a nonphysical relationship with Kennedy, who ran for president this year. Nuzzi had been covering the 2024 election for New York magazine prior to her departure.

According to a report from journalist Oliver Darcy on his Status newsletter published in September, the pair’s relationship began after Nuzzi profiled Kennedy for New York magazine in November 2023. After the story was published, Kennedy denied ever meeting Nuzzi outside of the time she profiled him. However, shortly after, The Daily Beast reported that he bragged to his friends about having “intimate” photos of her. Later on that month, Kennedy swerved questions about the relationship, telling Fox News he doesn’t comment on “those kinds of stories.”

When news broke of Nuzzi and Kennedy’s relationship in September, New York magazine put Nuzzi on leave.

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

The scandal got messier when Ryan Lizza, a reporter for Politico who Nuzzi was engaged to, confirmed that their engagement was called off, with Lizza referring to Nuzzi as his “ex-fiancée” in a statement shared in Politico’s Playbook newsletter.

Nuzzi then accused Lizza of orchestrating a blackmail campaign against her to try and damage her reputation in a lawsuit filed last month. Nuzzi alleged that Lizza hacked her personal devices and tried to get media outlets to publish personal information about her. A judge granted Nuzzi a no-contact order from Lizza in October.

Lizza denied the allegations, as well as made his own court filing against Nuzzi last week, calling her allegations a “last-ditch effort to salvage” her reputation.

In the filing, Lizza wrote that Nuzzi admitted to the affair in mid-August and that she told him it was a “toxic,” “unhealthy,” “stupid,” “psychotic,” “crazy” and “indefensible” relationship with “a 70-year-old ‘sex addict’ who told her he wanted to ‘possess,’ ‘control,’ and ‘impregnate’ her.”

Nuzzi’s lawyers told The Daily Beast last week that “Lizza’s intent is to harass and humiliate Ms. Nuzzi and that he is utilizing the press to do so — some of the very issues that drove Ms. Nuzzi to file for a protective order in the DC Superior Court.”

“Filings such as this, full of salacious and irrelevant claims that we will not dignify with a response, further his efforts, as described in her initial filing for the protective order,” the lawyers continued. “Her only objective in seeking intervention from law enforcement and the court is to ensure her safety and be left alone.”

Related...