Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr.'s affair was exposed because he bragged about her nude photos to friends

New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi's secret relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was exposed because he frequently boasted about it to his friends, the Daily Beast reported Saturday.

The 71-year-old former independent presidential candidate reportedly bragged so extensively about the affair – and the nude photos that 31-year-old Nuzzi had sent him – that the news even reached NY Mag's editor-in-chief, David Haskell.

According to the Daily Beast, Haskell then confronted Nuzzi about the affair in a one-on-one meeting at the magazine's New York offices on September 13. The Star's Washington correspondent denied the affair several times before Haskell, as the magazine put it, “gave Nuzzi a chance to come clean.”

As Haskell explained in an email to NY Mag staff on Friday, after Nuzzi confessed to the relationship, he was pulled from coverage of the 2024 presidential election and subsequently placed 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 had written about Kennedy. The relationship ended in late August.

Haskell reiterated the company's position that an internal investigation found “no evidence of bias” in Nuzzi's coverage of the election during her affair or of inaccuracies in her reporting. However, an “independent third party” is conducting a much more thorough investigation, the results of which will determine “final” disciplinary action.

In public statements and in conversations with Haskell, Nuzzi emphasized that her relationship with Kennedy was never “physical.” Citing a person close to Nuzzi, CNN reported that the affair was “emotional and digital in nature.” Puck News reported, citing another person close to Nuzzi, that she sent Kennedy “modest nude photos.”

Nuzzi has insisted that she never used Kennedy as a source since their relationship began. She also claims that the relationship did not influence her coverage of the 2024 election. But social media posts seemingly supporting policy positions by Kennedy, as well as comments she made during several New York Times campaign discussions, appear to prove otherwise and may provide additional context.

On March 5, she called the 2024 presidential election “a three-candidate race” — an argument Kennedy made frequently but rarely garnered widespread support — even though no poll had ever shown Kennedy had even the slightest chance of being elected. She also complained that “the establishment press is hesitant to treat Kennedy as a serious candidate for fear of being criticized for 'providing a platform to an anti-vaxxer.'”

On June 4, Nuzzi took part in a New York Times discussion of Donald Trump’s 34 convictions and said of the then upcoming Biden-Trump debate: “I could certainly imagine a scenario in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [debate] stage, and the Biden team throws a tantrum and says they only agreed to a one-on-one debate with Trump and backs out, and then CNN has to decide whether to host a debate between Trump and Kennedy.” She brought up Kennedy without being prompted by others.

In a NYT chat specifically referring to the Biden-Trump debate taking place 23 days later, 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,” and claimed that doing so put both Biden and Trump at risk of becoming “more vulnerable to a third-party threat.”

Kennedy is married to “Drop It, Larry!” actress Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi was recently engaged to Politico reporter and Politico Playbook author Ryan Lizza.

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