American writer and editor Olivia Nuzzi just released her much-awaited memoir ' American Canto '. The book intends to reveal the truth behind the rumours of her affair with then-presidential candidate and now head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. From being a New York magazine reporter to losing her fiancé and even her job, all because of an affair, Olivia Nuzzi has had quite a time in the limelight and its time to know more about her complicated love life.



Engagement with Ryan Lizza

Ryan Lizza is a political journalist whom Olivia Nuzzi was engaged to. The journalist couple made their romance official in January 2018 and got engaged four years later in Italy.



It was in 2024, that Lizza announced they had broken off their engagement after Nuzzi was involved in an alleged sexting scandal with now Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.



On Wednesday, Lizza published a jaw-dropping note on his Telos News substack, sharing that Nuzzi had “crossed the line from journalist to political operative” while engaging in an emotional affair with the Kennedy scion. He shared that Nuzzi advised Kennedy Jr., on how to counter-program the June 27, 2024 debate between Donald Trump and then President Joe Biden.



Lizza revealed an entire memo written by his ex-fiancé in the note detailing how she professed her love to then Presidential candidate. He also alleged that Nuzzi had a separate affair with another politician, former South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford . Lizza claimed that he found an "unfinished love letter" written by Nuzzi to Sanford, which allegedly "included enough details to confirm a physical relationship and the hint of some kind of falling out."



Before being engaged to Nuzzi, Lizza was married for over ten years, before divorcing in 2015. He shares two children with his ex-wife.



Affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It was in September 2024, that New York magazine placed its Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi, on leave. It was after she informed the editors that she had a "personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign," as per a press release.



“Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal," Nuzzi said in a statement to PEOPLE. "During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source."



Meanwhile, a representative for Kennedy, who has been married to actress Cheryl Hines since 2014, told CNN that the politician had only met Nuzzi once for an article, her November 2023 story, titled “The Mind-Bending Politics of RFK Jr.’s Spoiler Campaign.”



After being fired from New York, Nuzzi recently joined Vanity Fair as their West Coast editor in September 2025 and has released her book 'American Canto' on December 2nd, 2025.



According to The Washington Post, Nuzzi refers to Kennedy as "the Politian" throughout her book and shared that they exchanged poetry and that he wanted her to have his baby. She admitted to advising him for his presidential campaign and to lying to her bosses in New York about their relationship.



Nuzzi also shared how betrayed she felt by Kennedy's actions and that he indirectly apologised to her. Additionally, she referred to Lizza through the book as "the man I did not marry." She claimed that he was cheating on her with a woman and thus the revelation of her affair with Kennedy was "not quite so egregious".



Now, Nuzzi continues her work at Vanity Fair with no reports of a romantic interest in sight.