New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi admitted to a “personal relationship” with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she covered during the 2024 election.
The magazine placed Nuzzi on leave, announcing that the relationship violated its standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.
“We regret this violation of our readers’ trust,” it noted in an editorial published Thursday.
RFK Jr. downplayed the allegations, stating he met Nuzzi “once in his life” in 2023, “for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
This relationship scandal comes just weeks after he suspended his campaign and endorsed President Donald Trump.
Nuzzi did not name RFK Jr. in a press statement, vaguely confirming she had begun a relationship with an individual she had covered.
“The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict,” she said, without clarifying what the non-physical relationship entailed.
Statement from @Olivianuzzi pic.twitter.com/yDNCP9M2B0
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) September 20, 2024
Nuzzi, previously engaged to Politico reporter Ryan Lizza, expressed regret over not disclosing the relationship. Lizza confirmed the engagement has been called off.
It isn’t clear whether she was still engaged to Lizza during her relationship with RFK Jr., who has been married to actress Cheryl Hines since 2014.
The timing of the scandal’s publication—first reported by former CNN reporter Oliver Darcy on his blog—raises questions, especially following Nuzzi’s reporting on Biden’s cognitive decline after the “bloodbath” CNN debate and RFK’s endorsement of Trump.
Her reporting allegedly “‘crossed the line’” by embarrassing the Biden White House, wrote Jordan Schachtel, publisher of The Dossier newsletter. “Since then, the DC ruling class has sought her destruction. Be very wary of these smear attempts,” Schachtel noted.
The piece—titled “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden” and published July 4, days after the CNN debate—did not unveil groundbreaking information that conservatives did not already know. However, it marked a clear departure from the left’s shielding of Biden post-debate.
Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist, shared her thoughts, commenting that if “lustful messages from reporters to the Democrats they worship and adore were actually a problem for journalism bosses, about 95% of reporters would have to be suspended.”
Podcast host Megyn Kelly concurred, questioning whether the scandal was prompted because of the RFK Jr. endorsement of Trump.
“It is apparently more of a problem when the alleged relationship partner just endorsed Trump and when the reporter doesn’t absolutely loathe Trump and even wrote a long piece on Biden’s addled brain. That kind of shit will really get you in trouble,” Kelly wrote.
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