Olivia Nuzzi is being cut loose from Vanity Fair, reportedly in an effort for the magazine to distance itself from fresh allegations surrounding her relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year,” publisher Condé Nast said in a statement sent to the Daily News on Friday.
The embattled reporter was hired by Condé Nast in September to serve as Vanity Fair’s West Coast Editor after spending seven years at New York Magazine.
New York Mag cut ties with the 32-year-old scribe in October 2024 following reports that she engaged in a virtual affair with RFK Jr, whose presidential campaign she covered for the publication. Kennedy, the current secretary of health and human services, has denied wrongdoing.
Vanity Fair’s decision to similarly let Nuzzi go comes in the wake of new claims of impropriety. Nuzzi’s former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, a journalist who served as Politico’s Washington D.C. correspondent, published a series of stories on Substack in recent weeks, including a post on Wednesday of a strategy memo Nuzzi allegedly drafted to help Kennedy advance his political career.
The memo, Lizza said, was written to Kennedy in June 2024 “as he prepared for a pivotal event and while she was simultaneously finishing a severely critical article about Joe Biden.”
According to Lizza, the memo helped him come to the conclusion that “Nuzzi had crossed the line from journalist to political operative.”
Lizza also alleged his ex had an affair with former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, another politician she covered for New York Mag.
Condé Nast didn’t specifically say it was cutting Nuzzi loose because of the fresh claims, but its farewell announcement echoed the sentiments of her former employer. Despite an internal investigation that determined Nuzzi’s published work showed no wrongful bias, New York Mag said last year that she and the company had “agreed that the best course forward is to part ways.”
Nuzzi has worked to rebuild her reputation by writing a memoir titled “American Canto,” which was published last week. Reviews of the memoir have been largely unkind.
She took the chilly reaction to her tome in stride by posting a list of “Signs Your Book Rollout Has Gone Awry” on Instagram.
Nuzzi can take some comfort in the fact that longtime Vanity Fair contributor Michael Wolff believes she’s an “extremely good writer” and should continue to work. However, he predicted on Thursday that she would be “fired” from Vanity Fair.
