Vanity Fair Editor Allegedly Had an Affair with a Congressman | Headline USA

(José Niño, Headline USA) A political reporter’s alleged pattern of pursuing sources romantically has come under scrutiny after her ex fiancé detailed what he describes as affairs with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mark Sanford.

Olivia Nuzzi, the 32-year-old reporter who sent raunchy photos of herself to Kennedy, 71, after interviewing him for New York magazine in 2023, disclosed new information this week about the scandal in excerpts from her upcoming memoir, according to a Daily Beast report. 

On Monday, Nuzzi’s former fiancé, fellow journalist Ryan Lizza, 51, asserted in a Substack post that Kennedy was not her first romantic entanglement arising from journalistic work during their relationship.

In a post titled “Part 1: How I Found Out,” Lizza describes discovering a love letter from Nuzzi addressed to “a famous politician, 32 years older than Olivia, and well known for a sex scandal” who was also “a presidential candidate, a source and the subject of Olivia’s recent profile for New York.”

The revelation comes at the conclusion. He was not describing Kennedy, but former Republican congressman and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

Lizza claims Nuzzi conducted an affair with former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford following an interview while Sanford was challenging President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2019.

Lizza places his discovery of Nuzzi’s alleged involvement with Sanford, 65, who served in Congress until 2019 and suspended his presidential campaign in November that year, in March 2020.

Lizza wrote, “She later explained to me that she became ‘infatuated’ with him after their interview, that she couldn’t get him out of her head, and that as her obsession intensified, she sent him increasingly risqué pictures and texts, secretly followed him on the campaign trail when she told me she was out covering other candidates and fantasized about a rendezvous, which was consummated at his home in South Carolina one night after she went dark on me and made up a story about how she was dealing with a crisis concerning her sick mother.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Nuzzi and Sanford for comment.

Lizza, who worked for Politico until launching his Substack earlier this year, stated that while he and Nuzzi had experienced cycles of breakups and reconciliation, they were in “a period of tranquil domesticity” when he learned about her alleged affair with Sanford.

Lizza and Nuzzi remained together despite the alleged affair and became engaged in 2022.

However, the couple ultimately separated after Nuzzi’s alleged affair with Kennedy became public in late summer 2024.

The Health and Human Services secretary, who has been married to actress Cheryl Hines, 60, since 2014, has denied ever being romantically involved with Nuzzi. He and Hines have remained together.

New York magazine terminated Nuzzi’s employment in October 2024, but she has since joined Vanity Fair as an editor.

Lizza makes clear in his post that he objects to Nuzzi’s forthcoming memoir, noting she had told him earlier this year that she would “never talk about any of this again.”

“…it wasn’t true, and, unfortunately, silence no longer seems advisable or even possible,” he wrote.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino