Who Is Olivia Nuzzi? All About the Reporter at the Center of Alleged Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mark Sanford Affairs

In November 2025, Nuzzi's ex claimed she had an affair with a South Carolina politician years before her alleged 'personal relationship' with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

NEED TO KNOW

• Olivia Nuzzi lost her job at New York magazine in 2024 after disclosing an alleged “personal relationship” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• In November 2025, her ex, Ryan Lizza, claimed she had a separate affair with South Carolina politician Mark Sanford
• Her new book, American Canto, out Dec. 2, will share her side of the widely reported scandal

Political journalist Olivia Nuzzi's life turned upside down when news surfaced of her alleged “love" affair with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In September 2024, New York magazine placed the Washington correspondent on leave after she informed editors that she had a “personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign,” according to a press release. A source with direct knowledge later told CNN that the individual was Kennedy, who ended his presidential bid in August 2024, went on to endorse President Donald Trump and now serves as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal," Nuzzi said in a statement to PEOPLE. "During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source." Meanwhile, a representative for Kennedy, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines, told CNN that the politician had only met Nuzzi once for an article, her November 2023 story, “The Mind-Bending Politics of RFK Jr.’s Spoiler Campaign.”

Nuzzi, who was fired from New York magazine and has since joined Vanity Fair, is sharing her side of the story in her forthcoming book, American Canto, set for release on Dec. 2. However, she does not directly name Kennedy in her memoir, instead referring to him as "the Politician."

In November 2025, Nuzzi's ex-fiancé, Ryan Lizza, alleged that she had a separate affair with another politician, former South Carolina Congress member Mark Sanford. PEOPLE has reached out to representatives for Sanford, Nuzzi and Lizza for comment.

So who is Olivia Nuzzi? Here's everything to know about the journalist at the center of alleged scandals with Robert F. Kennedy and Mark Sanford.

Nuzzi grew up in New Jersey

Nuzzi was born on Jan. 6, 1993, in New York City and grew up in Middletown Township, N.J. She graduated from Middletown High School South, per Two River Times, and attended Fordham University after.

However, Nuzzi dropped out of Fordham after she got a full time offer to write for The Daily Beast in May 2014.

She started her career as an intern for Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign

When she was 20 years old, Nuzzi interned for former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's N.Y.C. mayoral campaign. While she was there, she was hired as a staff writer for NSFW Corp, where she wrote about her experiences working with Weiner in a July 2013 blog post.

In the post, she wrote that he called her "Monica" and alleged that his campaign manager had quit after he lied to her, just one in a "series of staffers who have fled the campaign."

Nuzzi was a correspondent for New York magazine

The journalist grew her career after she was hired by The Daily Beast in 2014 where she covered the presidential campaigns of Rand Paul and Chris Christie, as well as Trump's ascent into politics. In 2016, Politico named her one of the "16 Breakout Media Stars" and in 2018, Forbes included her on their "30 Under 30" list.

In February 2017, she was hired as a Washington correspondent for New York magazine, where she worked leading up to her being placed "on leave" in September 2024. She's also written for outlets like GQ, Esquire and The Washington Post.

At New York, Nuzzi covered politics, writing about the candidates in the 2024 presidential election. In addition to her November 2023 profile of Kennedy, Nuzzi also wrote other features, including a look into Trump's personal life.

In September 2025, Nuzzi joined Vanity Fair as the West Coast editor.

She hosted the Bloomberg original series Working Capital with Olivia Nuzzi

In July 2024, Nuzzi launched a new series in collaboration with Bloomberg called Working Capital with Olivia Nuzzi. Airing on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Originals platforms, the series followed Nuzzi as she interviewed politicians and business leaders to see their humanity.

Nuzzi spoke with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Rep. Ilhan Omar, New York Mayor Eric Adams and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, among others.

She was engaged to another Washington correspondent

In 2022, Nuzzi got engaged to Lizza, Politico's chief Washington correspondent. Lizza first gained fame as a journalist for The New Yorker, whose interview with then-White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci allegedly led to his removal in 2017.

However, later that year, Lizza was accused of sexual misconduct. He was fired from The New Yorker after an internal review, per The New York Times, though other media organizations declined to terminate or bar him from employment after their own investigations.

He was previously married for over 10 years before divorcing in 2015. Lizza shares two children with his ex-wife.

Following Nuzzi's alleged relationship with Kennedy, Lizza wrote in his Politico newsletter that he would no longer be covering anything related to Kennedy, calling Nuzzi his "ex-fiancée."

"Because of my connection to this story through my ex-fiancée, my editors and I have agreed that I won't be involved in any coverage of Kennedy in Playbook or elsewhere at POLITICO," he wrote at the end of his newsletter.

Days later, Nuzzi claimed that Lizza "explicitly threatened to make public personal information about me to destroy my life, career, and reputation" in a court filing, according to CNN.

However, in court documents filed in October 2024 that were obtained by CNN and other outlets, Lizza denied Nuzzi's claims, alleging that his ex-fiancée "had been cheating on me with a married man for almost a year." He went on to claim that Nuzzi told him Kennedy wanted to "control," "possess" and "impregnate" her, with Nuzzi reportedly exhibiting "catastrophically reckless behavior" during this time.

A representative for Kennedy told Wall Street Journal that what Lizza said in the filing “is not true.”

In November 2025, Lizza alleged that Nuzzi had a separate affair with Sanford in his newsletter, Telos News. At the time, Sanford, who served as South Carolina's governor from 2003 to 2011 and served in the U.S. House of Representatives, was running for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

Lizza claimed that he found an "unfinished love letter" written by Nuzzi to Sanford, which allegedly "included enough details to confirm a physical relationship and the hint of some kind of falling out."

He then claimed that Nuzzi told him that she was "infatuated" with Sanford, sent him "increasingly risqué pictures and texts" and fantasized about a "rendezvous."

PEOPLE has reached out to representatives for Sanford, Nuzzi and Lizza for comment.

Nuzzi was put on leave from her job for an alleged relationship with Kennedy

In September 2024, New York magazine announced it was putting Nuzzi on leave after discovering she had an alleged relationship with ”a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.”

"Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign," the magazine's statement read. They added that an internal review "found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias" in her published work.

A source told CNN that the alleged relationship was "digital" in nature rather than physical. In her own statement, Nuzzi further elaborated on the details without naming Kennedy.

“The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict," she said. "I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.”

At the time, PEOPLE reached out to Kennedy, who did not reply to requests for comment. PEOPLE also reached out to Hines for comment. PEOPLE once again reached out to Kennedy for comment in November 2025, but he did not respond.

Nuzzi's upcoming memoir details her alleged "personal relationship" with Kennedy

Nuzzi's upcoming book, American Canto, traces her decade covering American politics while reflecting on the personal and professional crises that reshaped her life, including her alleged affair with Kennedy.

She refers to Kennedy only as “the Politician,” and, according to an excerpt published by Vanity Fair, delves into what initially drew her to him.

"I loved his brain," Nuzzi wrote. "Others thought he was a madman; he was not quite mad the way they thought, but I loved the private ways that he was mad. I loved that he was insatiable in all ways, as if he would swallow up the whole world just to know it better if he could."

American Canto will hit bookshelves on Dec. 2.

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