New York magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi was placed on leave after she had an alleged romantic relationship with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while covering his campaign.
Nuzzi, without naming the 70-year-old Kennedy scion, admitted in a Thursday night statement that earlier this year, “the nature of some communications between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal.”
The 31-year-old star political reporter insisted the relationship was not physical in nature.
Sources told The Post that Nuzzi and RFK Jr. — the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy — were allegedly sexting while she was engaged and he was married.
Nuzzi penned a profile on Kennedy that was published in November 2023, and sometime after that, the two began their alleged fling, STATUS news reported, citing sources.
While reporting out the feature article, Nuzzi visited RFK Jr.’s sprawling Brentwood, California, home and the two went hiking together in the Santa Monica Mountains.
“Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece,” a Kennedy spokesperson told The Post when asked about their alleged relationship.
After recently coming clean to editors at New York magazine, Nuzzi was placed on leave.
She confessed “she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures,” the publication said in a statement.
The reporter would have been barred from covering the presidential election if the magazine had been aware of the relationship, according to New York magazine, which also did not identify Kennedy by name in its statement.
“An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review,” the statement continued.
“We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.”
Kennedy was not used as a source as Nuzzi covered the 2024 presidential race, a source told STATUS news, which first reported on the relationship.
Another person familiar with the relationship said the pair are believed to have become romantically involved around the new year, according to the outlet.
In her statement, Nuzzi said the relationship “should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.”
Kennedy has been married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, his third wife, since 2014.
Nuzzi was engaged to Politico reporter and collaborator Ryan Lizza in 2022, but the pair called off the marriage in the last few weeks, sources told The Post.
An Instagram post from July shows the lovebirds enjoying a beach vacation.
Lizza was fired by the New Yorker, where he had been the Washington correspondent, in 2017 after he was accused of “inappropriate sexual conduct” by a colleague. He denied any wrongdoing.
Nuzzi shared a link to a New York mag story in 2015 about the depiction of female reporters on the big screen as “slutty ambition monsters.”
“Why does Hollywood think female reporters sleep with their sources?” Nuzzi wrote on X.
Kennedy launched his presidential campaign on the Democratic ticket in April 2023 to challenge President Biden.
He then ran as a third-party candidate, but after failing to gain any serious national traction, suspended his independent White House bid last month.
He subsequently endorsed Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
Kennedy is no stranger to marital infidelity, and in a diary obtained by The Post in 2013, he referred to his “lust demons” as his “greatest defect.”
He acknowledged in an affidavit filed during divorce proceedings from his second wife, Mary Richardson, that he had resorted to “committing numerous infidelities” throughout the marriage “to keep my sanity.”
Richardson committed suicide in May 2012, before the divorce was finalized and while Kennedy dated Hines, whom he’d marry two years later.
Kennedy detailed his extramarital affairs in the diary, where he recorded romantic encounters with 37 women while married to Richardson.
Additional reporting by Victor Nava
