New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi was “obsessed” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after interviewing him in California, and pursued him via text to the point where he had to repeatedly block her, a source close to Kennedy’s camp told The Post.
“She went after him aggressively,” the source said Saturday. “She targeted him pretty hard. Bobby was blocking her continually. It was a little scary. She was obsessed with him. I think she still is.”
Nuzzi’s camp pushed back on allegations the situation was a “Fatal Attraction” type of scenario or that she instigated the relationship — but did not deny that the digital fling was tumultuous, suggesting both parties may have stopped texting each other at times.
“It’s absolutely untrue that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of how high pressure and high risk the circumstances were and for that reason their communication was very on and off,” a person with knowledge of the situation said.
“Olivia’s point of view is that to call this a relationship or affair is completely inaccurate. It was at most a flirtation,” another source close to Nuzzi said.
The two allegedly began “sexting” sometime after Nuzzi, 31, met with the 70-year-old Kennedy family scion for a November feature piece on the then-White House hopeful, sources had previously said.
Nuzzi and Kennedy’s relationship was strictly digital, but allegedly included risqué pics from the Washington correspondent, Puck News reported late Friday, citing a source.
Kennedy, the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, is married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, while Nuzzi was engaged to fellow political reporter Ryan Lizza. Nuzzi and Lizza have since split.
Kennedy, who ended his bid for the White House in August, was a no-show Saturday at a family wedding in Hyannis Port, Mass., where Grace Kennedy Allen — the granddaughter of Ted Kennedy — was set to tie the knot.
He was expected to attend a campaign event for Donald Trump in Nevada Saturday night.
A friend of RFK Jr.’s said it wasn’t uncommon for women to throw themselves at Kennedy while on the campaign trail. The Post reported from Kennedy’s campaign launch in Boston in April 2023 noted the “hot MILFs” flirting with him that day.
Nuzzi was placed on leave Thursday after New York magazine editors became aware of the inappropriate relationship.
Kennedy’s team previously said he and Nuzzi only met in person “once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
Hines, who turned 59 Saturday, has not commented on the scandal, though an insider insisted to Page Six that the actress is “no pushover.”
The actress was spotted at a Milan Fashion Week afterparty Friday, and had apparently ditched her wedding ring, the Daily Mail reported.
Kennedy has a history of romantic entanglements and once kept a list of up to 43 rumored mistresses in his cellphone.
He had contact information for dozens of women in an alphabetical list under the letter “G,” which his late second wife believed stood for “goomar,” the Italian slang for mistress, The Post revealed in 2014. At the time, Kennedy didn’t comment.
One of the women on the list was Hines, who married Kennedy at his family compound in Hyannis Port that year.
“All these women fall for him despite his age and his voice,” the source said of Kennedy Saturday.
RFK Jr. campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Spear did not respond to messages Saturday asking about Kennedy’s relationship with Nuzzi.
Asked Friday about the diary, Kennedy said, “I don’t think there is any way you could have a diary or journal of mine from 2001. I don’t have any comment on it. I have no diary from 2001.”
