The secret relationship between New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was exposed because he frequently bragged about it to his friends, the Daily Beast reported Saturday.
The 71-year-old former independent presidential candidate reportedly boasted about the affair, and about nude photos Nuzzi, 31, sent to him, so widely that word reached NY Magazine editor-in-chief David Haskell.
According to Daily Beast, Haskell subsequently confronted Nuzzi about it in a one-on-one meeting held Sept. 13 at the publication’s New York offices. The star Washington correspondent denied the affair several times before, as DB put it, Haskell “gave Nuzzi the option to come clean.”
As Haskell explained in an email to NY Mag staff on Friday, after Nuzzi confessed t0 the relationship, she was taken off of all coverage of the 2024 presidential election and subsequently went on leave. He also revealed that, according to Nuzzi, the relationship began in December of last year, after the publication of a cover story she wrote about Kennedy, and ended near the end of August.
Haskell also reiterated the company position that an internal investigation found “no evidence of bias” in Nuzzi’s coverage of the election during her affair, or inaccuracies in her reporting. However, an “independent third party” is conducting a much more thorough investigation, the results of which will determine “final” disciplinary actions.
In public statements and while speaking to Haskell, Nuzzi has insisted her relationship with Kennedy was never “physical.” Citing an individual close to Nuzzi, CNN reported that the affair “was emotional and digital in nature.” Puck News, citing another individual said to be close to Nuzzi, reported that she sent “demure nudes” to Kennedy.
Nuzzi has also insisted that she never used Kennedy as a source once their relationship began. She also asserts that the relationship didn’t influence her coverage of the 2024 election. But social media posts appearing to promote political positions espoused by Kennedy, and comments she made during multiple New York Times campaign discussions, may offer additional context.
On March 5, she described the 2024 presidential election as “a three-man race” despite the fact that no polling has ever shown Kennedy having even a small chance of being elected. She also complained that “the establishment press has been reluctant to cover Kennedy like a serious contender because they fear they will face criticism for ‘platforming an anti-vaxxer.’”
Then on June 4, while participating in a NYT discussion of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions, Nuzzi said about the then-upcoming Biden-Trump debate, “I could certainly see a scenario in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes the [debate] stage and the Biden campaign throws a fit and says it agreed only to a one-on-one debate with Trump, and pulls out, and then CNN is left to decide if it wants to host a debate between Trump and Kennedy.” She mentioned Kennedy unprompted.
23 days later, in a NYT chat specifically about the Biden-Trump debate, she complained that the event had been designed by the Biden campaign to “keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the stage.” She also said, “I think it was a mistake to exclude him,” asserting that in doing so, both Biden and Trump risked becoming “more vulnerable to a third-party threat.”
Kennedy is married to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi was until recently engaged to Politico reporter Ryan Lizza.
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