“Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi are officially parting ways after the writer’s alleged relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came under fresh scrutiny in recent weeks. “Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year,” the magazine said”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
“Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year,” the magazine said in a joint statement with a representative for Nuzzi on Friday.
Nuzzi, a star political reporter who left a position at New York magazine after the alleged relationship first came to light in 2024, was first announced as the magazine’s West Coast editor in September.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the exit.
It’s the latest turn in a twisty scandal that has captured the attention of tabloids, Beltway observers and media critics alike. As the Washington correspondent for New York magazine between 2017 and 2024, Nuzzi shot to prominence in journalism circles with her colorful political feature stories. Nuzzi peered at President-elect Donald Trump’s ear after it was wounded in the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania; she drove with then-presidential candidate Kennedy in his car — she called it a “death machine” — packed with dogs and, she reported, with seat belts chewed off.
It was this last story, and her general coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, that was at issue when reports emerged in 2024 that she had engaged in a relationship with Kennedy. Nuzzi said the relationship never turned physical and began only after she wrote the Kennedy profile, while Kennedy has always denied its existence. Nevertheless, the alleged relationship breached general journalistic ethical standards as well as the magazine’s own rules about conflicts of interest. After New York and the journalist parted ways, Nuzzi decamped to the West Coast.
Nuzzi reemerged in the fall seemingly poised for a return to public life: She had the new job at Vanity Faira new book, American Cantoand a glossy profile in the New York Times. That is, until her former fiancé, reporter Ryan Lizza, reemerged with fresh allegations about her relationship with Kennedy that raised fresh ethical questions about her work.
In a steady stream of posts from his Substack publication starting in mid-November, Lizza made explosive allegations about Nuzzi, including that she had previously engaged in a different inappropriate relationship with a politician she was covering, former US Rep. Mark Sanford. Lizza further claimed that while she was in a relationship with Kennedy, she gathered “opposition research” for the politician and essentially served as his “private political operative.”
Nuzzi’s attorney retorted that Lizza is waging a “harassment campaign” and that “Ms. Nuzzi will not dignify efforts to impugn her character with any future response.”
Nevertheless, the scrutiny ratcheted up, resulting in pieces musing on journalistic ethics and deconstructions of her book American Canto. Amid the furor, the New York Times reported that Vanity Fair was reviewing its employment of Nuzzi.
What’s next for the writer? With American Canto only having been out for three days, she’s recently done publicity stops for the work. Meanwhile, Lizza doesn’t seem to be done writing his side of the story.