The reporter whose career imploded over an alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims in a new tell-all that the two exchanged I love yous.
Olivia Nuzzi, 32, writes that the Kennedy scion, 71, even expressed a desire to be the father of her child.
Those bombshell revelations paint their relationship, which has been downplayed by the married Trump administration official, as more serious than previously known.
Reporter Olivia Nuzzi was profiling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his presidential run when she says they began an affair. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The New York Times, which obtained a copy of Nuzzi’s book, wrote, “She loved his eyes, ‘blue as the flame.’ She loved that ‘the sight of something as trivial as a rose’ could move him to tears. She loved his insatiable appetites and his ‘particular complications and particular darkness.’”
It continued, “But she said ‘I love you’ only after he said it first. He called her ‘Livvy’ and wrote her poems. He said he wanted her to have his baby. He promised to take a bullet for her.”
Nuzzi’s memoir, American Canto, never mentions Kennedy by name—but everyone knows who she is referring to. Word of their alleged affair, which Kennedy denies, rocked Washington last summer.
The former New York magazine reporter, who was fired over the scandal and was left by her fiancé, described her fling with Kennedy as emotional and “digital” in nature.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. married the actress Cheryl Hines in 2014. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Nuzzi said she and Kennedy met in 2023 for a magazine profile about his presidential candidacy. She alleges that things were sparked from there.
Kennedy, who has been married to the actress Cheryl Hines since 2014, says their meeting for the magazine piece is the only time he has interacted with Nuzzi. He denies ever being romantically involved with her, and he and Hines have remained together.
Nuzzi alleges in her memoir that she and Kennedy were so close, she would even watch him floss his teeth and they spoke about their drugs of choice.
Olivia Nuzzi’s former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, left her in the wake of the scandal. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for CBS News
The Times wrote, “Kennedy told her that he still uses psychedelics, and even smoked dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a powerful drug on which people are known to have what feel like near-death experiences. She told him she ‘liked uppers. I told him that I took Adderall.’”
They also chose “favorite parts” of each other.
Kennedy allegedly chose Nuzzi’s mouth. She says she chose his nose.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
