Olivia Nuzzi

Olivia Nuzzi (/ˈnuːtsi/ NOOT-see; born January 6, 1993)^[1] is an American political reporter who was the Washington, D.C. correspondent for New York magazine. The magazine placed her on leave on September 19, 2024, after she disclosed having a "personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign."^[2] News outlets later reported that the subject in question was former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.^[3]

Prior to her time at New York magazine, Nuzzi was a writer for the Daily Beast covering the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.

Nuzzi was born in New York City. She is the daughter of Kelly and John Nuzzi. John Nuzzi, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, worked for the New York City Department of Sanitation for 20 years and died in December 2015.^[4][5] Nuzzi wrote about her father after his death for The Daily Beast.^[5] Her mother, Kelly Nuzzi, died in February 2021. After her death, Nuzzi wrote about her for New York magazine.^[6] She has a brother, Jonathan.^[4]

Nuzzi grew up in the River Plaza neighborhood of Middletown Township, New Jersey.^[7] Nuzzi attended and graduated from Middletown High School South.^[7] She attended Fordham University.^[8]

She began her writing career as a teenager in 2011, as a monthly political columnist for the triCityNews, an alt weekly based in Asbury Park, New Jersey.^[7] She also wrote for More Monmouth Musings, a politically conservative blog and news website.^[7]

While she was a 20-year-old junior at Fordham University in 2013, Nuzzi volunteered as an intern for Anthony Weiner's New York City mayoral campaign.^[9] During her brief stint with the campaign, she was hired as a staff writer by NSFWcorp and described her experiences as an intern on the Weiner campaign in a blog post on July 28, 2013.^[10] In it, she asserted that Weiner referred to her and another female intern as "Monica," that an unnamed source told her that Weiner had lied to his campaign manager, who had quit as a result, and that the manager was one of a "series of staffers who have fled the campaign".^[9]

The New York Daily News commissioned her to write a follow-up article about the campaign^[11] that became a July 30, 2013, front-page story.^[9] According to Nuzzi, some of her fellow interns were working in the campaign because they were hoping to meet Weiner's wife Huma Abedin, and, through Abedin, her boss Hillary Clinton, to be involved in Clinton's anticipated run for the presidency.^[9]

In an interview with Talking Points Memo that was published that day, Weiner Communications Director Barbara Morgan, who later said she thought her interview was off the record, used several profane and vulgar slurs to describe Nuzzi and said Nuzzi "was clearly there because she wanted to be seen.... she would just not show up for work," that Nuzzi had signed and violated a non-disclosure agreement, and that Morgan had earlier "tried to fire her, but she begged to come back and I gave her a second chance."^[12] Morgan later apologized to Nuzzi, and Nuzzi accepted the apology.^[8]

Nuzzi was hired by The Daily Beast in May 2014 while still attending Fordham.^[13] Nuzzi left school before graduating to take the job.^[7] At The Daily Beast, Nuzzi covered the presidential campaigns of Rand Paul and Chris Christie, as well as Donald Trump's political rise.

In November 2016, Politico named Nuzzi one of the "16 Breakout Media Stars" of the presidential election.^[14] In December 2016, Mediaite listed Nuzzi as one of 2016's 25 "most influential" people in news media.^[15] In 2018, Forbes included Nuzzi on its annual "30 Under 30" list.^[16]

In February 2017, Nuzzi was hired by New York magazine to be its Washington correspondent.^[17] She has also written for Politico Magazine,^[18] GQ, Esquire,^[19] and The Washington Post.^[20]

In early 2018, Nuzzi admitted to entering the home office of Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager, without permission, and taking a photo, while Lewandowski accused her of also taking a photo album of his.^[21][22] Nuzzi said: "You know, I just walked into the house, because nobody was answering at the door."^[23] She left the home after texting her boyfriend. Nuzzi said he advised her that "it probably wasn't legal and that I should leave. I was like, 'Fuck.'"^[21][23]

In October 2018, Trump invited Nuzzi into the Oval Office for an exclusive interview.^[24]

In September 2024, former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy reported in his newsletter Status that Nuzzi "engaged in an inappropriate relationship" with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who she had covered in a profile story in November 2023.^[25] Nuzzi was put on leave from New York Magazine after acknowledging being in a non-physical "personal relationship" with Kennedy.^[26] The relationship was described by a third party as "emotional and digital in nature".^[27] Puck News's Dylan Byers reported that Nuzzi had sent Kennedy nude photographs.^[28] Darcy said that Nuzzi's actions constituted a "conflict of interest," saying Nuzzi was one of the "most high-profile journalists in America, and she arguably wrote one of the most consequential pieces of the 2024 campaign, which was about what she called the conspiracy of silence to protect Joe Biden. And given that readers did not know that this relationship was ongoing with RFK, it raises questions about conflict of interest, because RFK has been an active participant in the 2024 campaign."^[29]

New York Magazine said Nuzzi's actions were "a violation of the magazine's standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures," adding that "had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign." While "an internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias," the magazine apologized for "violating our readers' trust."^[30]

A spokesperson for Kennedy said he "only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece."^[25]

In 2022, AMC announced that Nuzzi would write and executive produce A Message From the State, a black comedy with Gina Mingacci, the executive producer of Killing Eve.^[31] Nuzzi also made an appearance playing herself in the Showtime series Billions.^[32] Nuzzi produced a documentary for MSNBC, Four Seasons Total Documentary, about Rudy Giuliani’s botched attempt to contest the 2020 election results.^[33] In April 2023, Nuzzi began hosting the companion podcast for HBO's White House Plumbers miniseries.^[34] In 2024, Nuzzi hosted Working Capital, a six-episode interview series on Bloomberg Television, featuring conversations with politicians and businessmen.^[35][36]

In 2017, Nuzzi was named to Forbes's 2018 "30 under 30" list.^[37] In 2019, Nuzzi was awarded a “NEXT” award^[38] by the American Society of Magazine Editors. She was also a finalist for the 2023 National Magazine Award for feature writing.^[39]

She resides in Washington, D.C.^[7] In September 2022, Nuzzi became engaged to Politico's chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza.^[40] In September 2024, it was reported Nuzzi and Lizza were no longer engaged.^[41]

• Appearances on C-SPAN