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Lizza has defended his stories about Nuzzi, telling The Independent that he is ‘telling the truth’
Rachel Dobkinin New YorkWednesday 03 December 2025 01:45 GMTComments
CloseOlivia Nuzzi leaves New York magazine after controversy over RFK Jr. rumored relationship
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Vanity Fair editor Olivia Nuzzi has trashed her scorned ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza for publishing what she calls harmful “revenge porn.”
The pair of high-profile journalists has recently made headlines as they unraveled their messy personal lives.
Ahead of the publication of Nuzzi’s new book, American Canto, Lizza released a series of Substack posts for his independent publication Telos News, claiming his former partner cheated on him with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.
In the first part of the series, Lizza detailed a “love letter” Nuzzi, now 32, had supposedly sent to Sanford in March 2020. Nuzzi had covered the 2020 presidential election cycle in which Sanford was a candidate.
“If I swallowed every drop of water from the tower above your house,” Lizza quoted the letter. “I would still thirst for you.”
open image in galleryVanity Fair editor Olivia Nuzzi has trashed her scorned ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza for publishing what she calls harmful 'revenge porn' (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)Lizza detailed erotic poetry Kennedy, now 71, had supposedly written to Nuzzi in 2024 in another part of his series. Nuzzi had profiled Kennedy as a presidential candidate for New York magazine.
“Yr open mouth awaiting my harvest,” Kennedy wrote to Nuzzi, according to Lizza. “Drink from me Love.”
In a post on Emily Sundberg’s Substack newsletter Feed Me published Tuesday, Nuzzi called Lizza’s allegations “another attempt to harass, humiliate, and harm me until I am as destroyed as he seems to be. It is abuse that I am all too familiar with now relocated to the public square and dressed up as some sort of noble crusade.
“To that point: If he possessed any explosive information in the public interest, the only responsible way to handle that information would be to quietly pass it off to an outlet free of his conflicts; there is no glory in that, though, and no subscribers. This obsessive and violating fan fiction-slash-revenge porn he has written would never meet standards for publication at any legitimate outlet.”
open image in galleryThe pair of journalists has recently made headlines as they unraveled their messy personal lives (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for CBS News)In response to Nuzzi’s comments, Lizza told The Independent, “Telling the truth is not harassment.”
In Nuzzi’s new book, published on Tuesday, she details a relationship with a man she calls “The Politician,” who is speculated to be Kennedy. The Health and Human Services secretary has been married to actress Cheryl Hines since 2014.
A spokesperson for Kennedy told Vanity Fair in September 2024, “Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested.”
The Independent has reached out to Sandford for comment.
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