Olivia Nuzzi leaves New York magazine after revelation of RFK Jr relationship

The politics writer Olivia Nuzzi and New York magazine have parted ways just over a month after she was placed on leave following the disclosure that she had engaged in a “personal” relationship with Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The departure was announced in a statement from New York magazine on Monday afternoon.

In the statement, the publication noted that the law firm they hired to review Nuzzi’s work during her reporting on the 2024 campaign, which included a lengthy profile of Kennedy, found “no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias” in her coverage.

“Nevertheless”, the statement continued, “the magazine and Nuzzi agreed that the best course forward is to part ways. Nuzzi is a uniquely talented writer and we have been proud to publish her work over her nearly eight years as our Washington Correspondent.

“We wish her the best,” it added.

Shortly after the magazine released the statement, an attorney for Nuzzi also issued a statement saying that the reporter was “gratified though not surprised that two different investigations have determined that her reporting on the 2024 campaign was sound and that she did nothing wrong.

“For nearly eight years, she consistently produced critically celebrated and hugely popular journalism in her capacity as the Washington Correspondent for New York Magazine,” the statement reads, adding that Nuzzi is “grateful for the editors, fact checkers, and artists with whom she worked and to the readers who have supported her with their time, subscriptions, and engagement. She looks forward to the next chapter of her career.”

The news that Nuzzi and New York magazine are parting ways comes a little over a month after the magazine placed Nuzzi on leave and released their initial statement.

In that statement the publication announced that Nuzzi had admitted to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with Kennedy while reporting on the campaign, which, the publication said, was a “violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.

“Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” the magazine said on 19 September.

At the time, the magazine said that an internal review of her published work had found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias, and announced that Nuzzi was currently on leave. The magazine added that it was conducting a more thorough third-party review.

“We regret this violation of our readers’ trust,” the statement read.

In September, Nuzzi also acknowledged the relationship in a statement and said that earlier in 2024, the nature of some communication between herself and a former reporting subject “turned personal” adding that during that time, she did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source.

She continued: “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.”

It later came out that the source was RFK Jr, who Nuzzi had written a lengthy profile on while he was running his high-profile Independent campaign for president, before he suspended his run and endorsed Donald Trump in August.

A spokesperson for RFK Jr told CNN last month that Kennedy “only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece”.