Journalist Ryan Lizza says he has split with ‘ex-fiancée’ Olivia Nuzzi in his first statement on claims she had an affair with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Lizza, 50, is a co-author of Politico’s Playbook and the newsletter didn’t immediately address the scandal until its Friday afternoon edition.
However it the ‘mediawatch’ section, Playbook noted how Status news’ Oliver Darcy broke the news that Nuzzi had been placed on leave from New York Magazine after engaging in an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with RFK Jr.
‘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,’ Lizza wrote.
Lizza was previously New Yorker’s Washington Correspondent but was fired due to allegations of ‘improper sexual conduct’.
His personal life has him back in the spotlight after Nuzzi, 31, admitted to having an alleged affair with RFK Jr., 70, that began after she visited his $7 million California home to write a feature article last November.
Nuzzi has said the relationship wasn’t ‘physical’ while New York Magazine is investigating the matter.
The journalists were considered a Washington power couple, with Lizza shooting to fame after he released a profanity-filled interview with ex-White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci in 2017.
Scaramucci had been quoted calling former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a ‘f****** paranoid schizophrenic and a paranoiac’ as well as implying that Chief Strategist Steve Bannon ‘sucked his own c***.’
The Mooch also threatened to fire staff members in the article.
Critics noted that his interview was unnecessarily vulgar, especially for someone representing the United States and Scaramucci was subsequently fired from the job after just 11 days.
Soon after the release of this article, allegations about Lizza himself also emerged – leading to his own firing from The New Yorker.
CNN, where Lizza also worked, launched an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations but found ‘no reason to keep [him] off the air.’
Politico scooped up Lizza and announced he would be co-authoring its premiere newsletter, Playbook, starting a day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
He and Nuzzi were also co-writing a book about the 2020 campaign, but plans for that were scrapped.
Page Six reported in December 2021 that the publisher had iced the book after the duo wasn’t able to produce the kinds of scoops that sell tell-all political books.
Sources told the New York Post’s gossip column that while the couple was well sourced with people in former President Donald Trump’s orbit, those in President Joe Biden camp ‘don’t trust’ Nuzzi.
In September 2022, Nuzzi posted on her Instagram feed that Lizza, who was previously married, had proposed.
‘Fidanzati’ she titled the picture, Italian for ‘engaged.’