In November, Olivia Nuzzi penned a piece for New York Magazine profiling then-POTUS candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., noting "he could turn the presidential race upside down." Kennedy is no longer in the race, but now both his and Nuzzi's worlds are the ones that have been upended: On Thursday, the magazine said that Nuzzi has been placed on leave after she revealed a "personal relationship" that was apparently with RFK Jr. In a statement, the publication didn't ID Kennedy, but simply noted Nuzzi had had the 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 disclosure."
"Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign," New York Magazine added. "We regret this violation of our readers' trust." A source tells CNN that the "former subject" in question is indeed RFK Jr., and that the relationship "was emotional and digital in nature, not physical." The news was first reported on by Oliver Darcy's "Status" newsletter, which noted Nuzzi "did not proactively disclose her alleged relationship with Kennedy" to the magazine, which "only recently learned of it." A source said to be close to Nuzzi said the relationship between the reporter and RFK Jr., who's married to actor Cheryl Hines, began after Nuzzi's November profile of him; a second source says it began after the start of this year.
Nuzzi—who got engaged to Politico reporter Ryan Lizza in 2023, per Variety—has since released her own statement, per CNN. "Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal," she said. "During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source." She added: "The relationship was never physical but 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." As for Kennedy, a rep said, "Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece." New York Magazine says that an internal review has shown "no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias" in Nuzzi's work, and that she's on leave during a "third-party review." (More Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
