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(NewsNation) — Vanity Fair staffers are in an uproar after the magazine’s newly named West Coast editor, Olivia Nuzzi, was caught up in a cheating scandal earlier this week, insiders told me.
It’s long been known that Nuzzi — a former star political reporter who was fired from New York Magazine last year — had an alleged “online/digital” romance with a former presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she’d profiled in 2023.
When that news broke in 2024, Nuzzi was fired. She blamed her ex, former Politico writer Ryan Lizza, for the leak (turns out it was her mentor, Kara Swisher, who let the brass at New York Magazine know about the affair).
Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, alluded to the issue in her memoir, “Unscripted,” saying she and Kennedy discussed everything and eventually “renewed the ties that bind.”
Nuzzi, for her part, also wrote a memoir, “American Canto,” in which she claimed that while they only met in person once, someone referred to as only “The Politician” said over texts and phone calls that he loved her and wanted her to have his baby.
“The Politician” is widely believed to be RFK.
Politico writer Ryan Lizza’s mic drop
All of which was embarrassing enough for staffers at Vanity Fair — to have a powerful West Coast editor with slippery ethics — but then came Lizza’s mic drop.
Lizza wrote in his Substack that Nuzzi also had an alleged affair in 2020 with the then-presidential contender Mark Sanford, which came, once again, after an interview with the candidate at his home. This time, the affair was indeed physical, Lizza claims.
It is this claim that rocked the Vanity Fair newsroom.
“With her past predilections for presidential nominees coming to light — how will she be able to cover people like Gavin Newsom appropriately? Or other powerful older men for that matter?” an insider asked.
Newsom is the current governor of California and will likely run for president in 2028.
As West Coast editor, Nuzzi would be the one to interview him and other powerful men in Los Angeles and San Francisco — something that not only would be dubious considering her alleged actions with Sanford and Kennedy but leave her reporting on anyone open to question.
Condé Nast’s silence on the Olivia Nuzzi issue questioned
“What we’re seeing is the death throes of scale in media,” journalism professor Jeff Jarvis told the media newsletter Status. “You see a place like Vanity Fair say, ‘What can we do to get attention? Let’s hire Olivia Nuzzi, and she’ll make trouble.’ That’s a sad last gasp.”
Jarvis also questioned Condé Nast’s silence on the issue, avoiding confrontation without stepping forward to back Nuzzi. “Vanity Fair could have been more self-reflective” in this situation, Jarvis said, noting they could have argued that there is merit in providing “second chances.”
Cheryl Hines is ‘irate’
Meanwhile, Hines is “irate” and, according to the New York Post, is telling friends that Nuzzi is a “[effing] liar” and that Kennedy would “NEVER love that woman let alone have her have his baby… it would be laughable if it wasn’t so hurtful.”
Hines is also seeing red that Vanity Fair would hire Nuzzi despite knowing the allegations against her regarding Bobby (it is not known whether the magazine knew Nuzzi had allegedly had an affair with Sanford after interviewing him).
“It’s like she used her job as a matchmaking tool for herself. … What is going on?” a Hines source said.
As one VF insider said to me: “Who would want to have [Nuzzi] interview them now? Forget Cheryl and Kennedy — any man who sits alone in a room with her will have people second-guessing him, especially if he’s married.”
A rep for Vanity Fair didn’t return emails.