One of America’s premier magazine writers has been placed on leave following the news that she had a romantic relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while he was running for president and while she was covering him.
Status, a newsletter from former CNN journalist Oliver Darcy, broke the news on Thursday night. According to Status, New York Magazine Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi had an inappropriate relationship with Kennedy. The relationship began around the new year after Nuzzi profiled Kennedy for the magazine last November and continued until August.
New York Magazine learned of the relationship a few days ago and has placed Nuzzi on leave pending a “third-party review” of her work.
“Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” the magazine said in a letter to its readers on Thursday night. “We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.”
Nuzzi is famous in media circles as a gadfly who writes lengthy profiles of subjects like Kennedy and Donald Trump. She had a cameo in the TV show Billions, wrote a scathing portrait of the declining health of Joe Biden, and investigated how the first Trump presidency ended at Four Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia. She gets close to her subjects and produces in-depth profiles and coverage that strike at the heart of them. Now all that work is under a microscope.
New York Magazine editor David Haskell told its staff Friday morning that the third-party review will help determine what to do next, according to Semafor media editor Max Tani.
“We are 45 days away from the election. We are in the midst of reporting, writing and editing first-class journalism about the campaign and the issues and figures at the center of it,” he said in a note to staff. “I am sorry this brings a cloud of distraction over us.”
In a note to staff this morning, New York magazine editor David Haskell said the publication is engaging an independent third-party to review Olivia Nuzzi’s 2024 work. The results of the review will “influence our final disciplinary decision.”
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) September 20, 2024
Brian Stetler at CNN reported that the affair was “digital and emotional” in nature and that it was never physically consummated. Nuzzi confirmed this in a statement she gave to Status.
“Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal. During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source,” she said. “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.”
RFK Jr., who is married to actress Cheryl Hines, has not publicly commented on the affair.
“Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece,” a Kennedy spokesperson told CNN.
Kennedy was running for president when he met Nuzzi, but has since suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. It was a campaign rocked by scandal, including two centered on dead animals, a divorce involving brain worms, and sexual assault allegations.
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Publish date : 2024-09-20 03:00:00
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