Vanity Fair is ending its association with Olivia Nuzzi, who had briefly been the magazine’s west coast editor, as the publication distances itself from controversy tied in part to her relationship with the US health secretary, 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 on Friday shared with the New York Times.
For weeks, questions surrounded the fate of Nuzzi’s contract after the magazine was made aware of journalistic transgressions newly alleged by her former fiance, journalist Ryan Lizza. He claimed Nuzzi’s connection to Kennedy’s presidential campaign was more extensive than she had previously admitted – and further accused her of another relationship with a person she was reporting on.
Nuzzi had joined Vanity Fair under a short-term deal set to conclude at the end of 2025, according to the Wall Street Journal. At the time, the magazine said she would focus on “events, industries, and culture of the Pacific region, as well as writing for the magazine”.
Her position became uncertain after Lizza began publishing a series of personal exposés about her in November. In the first installment, he accused her of multiple professional breaches, including an affair with the former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, a 2020 Republican presidential candidate whom she was covering.
Initially, Vanity Fair did not respond to Lizza’s claims, waiting four days before issuing a brief statement: “We were taken by surprise, and we are looking at all the facts.”
Staff members at the magazine had also reportedly received little information about the internal review concerning her situation, as previously reported by the Guardian.
A memoir by Nuzzi, American Canto, was released on Tuesday. In advance of publication, she appeared in a New York Times profile and photoshoot – and an excerpt from the book ran in Vanity Fair. Critical response to the book, which does not name Kennedy but addresses her entanglement with him, has been largely negative.
During a recent video interview, Nuzzi shared sparse information about her professional future, saying she did not intend to return to campaign reporting and was not expected to do so in her role as west coast editor at Vanity Fair.
“I think shame is really important and I had fucked up,” she told the Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “I did something wrong.
“Those ethics rules exist for a reason – they’re really good rules. And I had violated that.”
