As reports continue to emerge of New York Magazine’s OIivia Nuzzi’s affair with RFK Jr., many eyes have turned to her equally controversial reporter ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza.
Lizza, 50, is currently POLITICO’s Chief Washington Correspondent and co-author to their Playbook newsletter.
He was previously New Yorker’s Washington Correspondent but was fired due to allegations of ‘improper sexual conduct’.
But it is his personal life that is now in the spotlight now after Nuzzi, 31, admitted to having an alleged affair with RFK Jr., 70, that began when she visited his $7 million California home to write a feature article.
So who is Ryan Lizza?
The longtime political reporter shot to immense fame after he released a profanity-filled interview with ex-White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci in 2017.
Scaramucci had been quoted calling former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a ‘f****** paranoid schizophrenic and a paranoiac’ as well as implying that Chief Strategist Steve Bannon ‘sucked his own c***’. He also threatened to fire staff members in the article.
Critics noted that his interview was unnecessarily vulgar, especially for someone representing the United States and Scaramucci was subsequently fired from the job.
Soon after the release of this article, horrifying allegations about Lizza himself also emerged – leading to his own firing from the well-reputed magazine.
In December 2017, the New York Times reported that the Donald Trump supporter had allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with a woman in the context of the Me Too movement.
A New Yorker spokeswoman said at the time: ‘The New Yorker recently learned that Ryan Lizza engaged in what we believe was improper sexual conduct.
‘We have reviewed the matter and, as a result, have severed ties with Lizza. Due to a request for privacy, we are not commenting further.’
But while Lizza vehemently protested against the allegations and called it a ‘terrible mistake’, both the magazine and Douglas H. Wigdor, a lawyer representing the woman, said that her and the publication’s narratives of the misconduct were ‘accurate’.
As a result of the allegations, he was also fired from his role as on-air political commentator for CNN temporarily and as an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University.
The former Chief Political Correspondent for Esquire magazine has also been involved in controversies in his own personal life.
Lizza had married his college sweetheart Christina Irene Gillespie, a family physician at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington in June 2004.
The pair had two children but after 11 years of marriage, divorced each other due to unclear reasons.
In 2022, the correspondent got engaged to Nuzzi, who announced their betrothal on Instagram with a series of videos showing off a huge, solitaire-cut sparkler on her ring finger.
The former couple were due to publish a book together about the 2020 election which has since stalled.
Page Six had reported that they were struggling to come up with the anticipated political scoops, with Biden’s team in particular mistrustful of Nuzzi.
Insiders told the publication that the reporters had failed to ‘come up with the kind of scoops or access that make political blockbusters jump off the shelves’.
Lizza and Nuzzi were also completely unsuccessful in scoring an Oval-Office interview with President Biden – unlike their counterpart authors – due to the latter’s controversial reputation in the West Wing.
Experts believe that Lizza’s sexual misconduct allegations also played a role in the book never coming to life.
Reports of the couple allegedly called it quits in the last few weeks have also emerged, according to the New York Post.
An official announcement or clarification has not yet been made by either Lizza or Nuzzi.
Yesterday, Nuzzi was placed on placed on leave after she admitted to that ‘the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal’, in a statement to DailyMail.com.
She also claimed the relationship was never physical.
Her editors confirmed that the other party was a ‘former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign’. Status reports that the affair was with the former presidential hopeful, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines.
RFK Jr. has insisted he only met the political journalist once when she did a profile on him last year.
‘Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece,’ his spokesman told CNN. A source added that the nature of the relationship was ’emotional and digital in nature, not physical’.
But insiders told the New York Post the pair had engaged in ‘sexting’ despite RFK Jr. being married and Nuzzi being engaged at the time.
‘Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal,’ Nuzzi said.
‘During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source,’ she said.
‘The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.’
New York magazine acknowledged an inappropriate relationship in a statement about Nuzzi’s hiatus, deeming it ‘a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures’.
‘Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,’ the statement read. ‘An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias.
‘She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.’
