Who is Olivia Nuzzi, the reporter once called a ‘sl-tbag’ at the center of RFK ‘sexting’ firestorm?
New York magazine’s star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi has been placed on leave after admitting she “engaged in a personal relationship” with a key figure in the 2024 presidential race she was reporting on, whom reports have identified as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But it isn’t the first time the veteran journo has made the headlines herself.
Nuzzi first became the news more than a decade ago when a boss called her a “sl-tbag” while she was still an undergrad.
‘Slutbag’-gate
Olivia Nuzzi, 31, was born in New York City and raised in Middletown Township, NJ, according to a profile from the Two River Times.
After early high school bylines in local publications, Nuzzi returned to the Big Apple, where she enrolled at Fordham University.
She was a college junior when she volunteered as an intern for disgraced New York pol Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign — an experience she wrote about in blog posts for NSFWcorp.
In the posts, dated July 28, 2013, Nuzzi alleged that Weiner referred to her and another female intern as “Monica” — seemingly a reference to Monica Lewinsky — and that his campaign manager resigned after he lied to them.
Nuzzi parlayed the buzz from the blog posts into a July 30, 2013, cover story for the New York Daily News, in which she further divulged that many of her fellow interns were hoping to use the Weiner campaign as a steppingstone — by way of Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin — to the Hillary Clinton camp.
That same day, Weiner communications director Barbara Morgan gave a profanity-laden takedown of Nuzzi to Talking Points Memo.
Morgan, who later claimed she believed the interview was off the record, denounced the then-college student as a “bitch,” a “c–t,” a “t–t,” and finally a “sl-tbag” — an inventive phrase that spawned think pieces of its own.
Morgan apologized to Nuzzi, who accepted the apology in a July 31, 2013, interview with the Atlantic.
Rising star
Fresh off the Weiner scandal, Nuzzi was hired by the Daily Beast in May 2014.
She left Fordham early to take the position and in 2016 she was tapped as one of Politico’s “16 Breakout Media Stars” of that year’s presidential election.
Nuzzi was hired as New York magazine’s Washington correspondent in February 2017. She stirred up controversy in early 2018 when she admitted to entering the home of former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski without permission.
Nuzzi said she took a photo at the residence, while Lewandowski accused her of also nabbing a photo album that belonged to him, Fox News reported.
“I texted my boyfriend, ‘You know, I just walked into the house, because nobody was answering at the door.’ And he said it probably wasn’t legal and that I should leave. I was like, ‘F—,’” Nuzzi told the Columbia Journalism Review of the questionable move.
New York magazine publicly stood by their star reporter, telling Fox that they did not “believe she did anything wrong.”
Later, in October 2018, President Trump personally invited Nuzzi to an exclusive sit-down in the Oval Office, which was subsequently published by New York magazine.
That year, she was also named on Forbes’ coveted “30 Under 30” list.
Power couple
Nuzzi became engaged to Politico’s chief Washington correspondent, Ryan Lizza, 50, in September 2022 in Italy, according to her Instagram.
It was not clear exactly when the couple got together, but Lizza was pictured on Nuzzi’s Instagram as early as January 2018 — fresh off his firing from the New Yorker for allegations of “improper sexual conduct,” the New York Times reported the previous month.
The pair supposedly parted ways recently, sources told The Post this week.
RFK ‘sexting’ scandal
On Thursday, New York magazine announced that Nuzzi was “on leave” following her admission that she engaged in a “personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign.”
The former subject in question was allegedly former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Status newsletter reported.
Sources told The Post that Nuzzi and RFK Jr. — the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy — were supposedly sexting.
A spokesperson for Kennedy insisted that the 70-year-old only met Nuzzi “once,” when she wrote about him in October 2023.
In her own statement, Nuzzi admitted that the relationship between her and a former subject had “turned personal,” but insisted the relationship was “never physical.”
Nuzzi would have been barred from covering the presidential election if her editors had been aware of the relationship, according to New York magazine, which also did not identify Kennedy in its statement.
