Journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s upcoming memoir includes the retelling of an alleged “digital affair” with politician and President Donald Trump‘s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. According to the book, their relationship brought admissions of love and intimate emotional entanglement across texts and calls.
In her memoir, “American Canto,” Nuzzi places the beginning of the relationship in a 2023 interview during his presidential campaign, but it evolved into an exchange so frequent that she details it as “the politician” telling her “I love you” on multiple occasions. In the memoir, she writes that he referred to her affectionately as “Livvy,” composed poems for her, and at one point expressed a desire for her to bear his child.
Court filings from Nuzzi’s former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, allege that Kennedy wanted to “possess,” “control,” and “impregnate” Nuzzi during their affair. According to the filings, the relationship spanned roughly a year, included power-imbalanced dynamics, and Nuzzi described it as “toxic,” “crazy,” and “indefensible.” Kennedy’s representatives called the claims “categorically false.”
Nuzzi, 32, says the relationship was nonphysical yet deeply emotional. She says the relationship evolved into a form of emotional dependency, though no in-person sexual activity is claimed. While she never names Kennedy directly in the book, it’s widely reported that he is the unnamed “older man” in her text.
Kennedy, 71, has publicly denied any romantic relationship beyond a single meeting for an interview. His spokesperson stated he “only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
Actor Cheryl Hines, who has been married to Kennedy since 2014, asserts that the affair never occurred. Hines, in public comments given in October, urged the public to “consider the source” when evaluating Nuzzi’s claims, characterizing the situation as “a lot” of rumors and chaos tied to Kennedy’s presidential campaign.
The controversy resulted in significant career consequences for Nuzzi. In September 2024, her employer, New York Magazine, placed her on leave, stating that “she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.” The magazine’s internal review found “no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias” in her work, yet the disclosure failure alone triggered disciplinary action.
Nuzzi’s own statement acknowledged that “the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal” and added “the relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict.
Originally published on Latin Times
