Vanity Fair has ended its association with West Coast editor Olivia Nuzzi as renewed scrutiny over her past relationship with Robert F Kennedy Jr intensifies. In a joint statement on Friday, the magazine and Nuzzi said they had agreed to let her contract expire at the end of the year. Nuzzi joined the publication in September, making her departure unusually swift. The decision comes as attention has returned to her past affair with Kennedy, now serving as Health Secretary in the Trump administration, following new details in her memoir American Canto.
Nuzzi, 32, is a prominent political journalist known for interviews with major figures including Kennedy, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. She began her career at The Daily Beast in 2014 before moving to New York Magazine, where she became Washington correspondent. Her work has also appeared in Politico, The Washington Post, GQ and Esquire.
The controversy surrounding her is tied to her turbulent relationship with her former fiancé, journalist Ryan Lizza. The pair began dating in 2018 and became engaged in 2022. Their planned book on the 2020 election never materialised. Lizza later alleged that Nuzzi had an affair with Kennedy while profiling him during his 2023 presidential run. Their conflict deepened in 2024 when Nuzzi filed a restraining order accusing Lizza of hacking, blackmail attempts and threats of violence. She withdrew the petition after a series of counterclaims.
Lizza, who now runs the Substack publication Telos, has had a career marked by both high-profile reporting roles and past allegations of misconduct at several outlets.
The release of American Canto reignited the issue. Vanity Fair published an excerpt on November 17, while The New York Times profiled Nuzzi days earlier. In response, Lizza released a series of essays accusing her of deeper ethical lapses. He claimed her relationship with Kennedy was more extensive than disclosed and alleged she acted as a political fixer, including attempts to suppress damaging information about him.