Scandal-scarred reporter Olivia Nuzzi was “elated” after the RFK Jr. affair story broke — not because of the scandal, but because the Kennedy heir finally stopped “ghosting” her, her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza claimed Wednesday.
The relationship was already on the rocks when the bombshell dropped. Ahead of the story’s break, Kennedy — then closing out his presidential campaign and engaged in talks with the Trump team — went radio silent, leaving Nuzzi panicked and scrambling, according to Lizza.
But once the story went public, everything changed, Lizza said in the fifth installment of a series of stories on the Substack platform about the end of his relationship with Nuzzi, who left New York magazine after her alleged RFK fling.
“According to three people who either spent time with her or talked to her, Olivia was in the best mood they’d seen in weeks,” he wrote. “The explanation for the high was that, behind the scenes, she and Bobby were working together again.”
“Up until then, Bobby had been ghosting her,” Lizza added. “So Olivia, according to her friends, was ecstatic to be back in touch — even if it was just to protect him and humiliate her.”
Lizza, a former reporter for Politico, also detailed more of the chaos behind the scenes in the latest report.
Nuzzi reportedly formed a “war room” with CNN alum Matt Dornic and her agent, Rachel Adler, to spin the narrative, fend off reporters, and cast Lizza as the “scorned ex.”
The strategy involved a mix of denial, legal threats — and wild false claims, including a bizarre accusation that Lizza had slept with a made-up nanny, he wrote.
The frenzy only grew as reporters from multiple outlets called with versions of the story. Ten, including The Post, refused to publish what Lizza described as Nuzzi’s “lies.”
Kennedy’s security adviser Gavin de Becker also added pressure by hovering nearby, adding what Lizza called “Bond-villain-level intimidation.” De Becker would “occasionally check in on Olivia, according to her friends, just to make sure she remained loyal and was protecting Bobby’s secrets.”
“At one point, Olivia told Tucker Carlson about the details of one of de Becker’s calls to her,” Lizza wrote. “Tucker told her she should fear for her life and offered to send her a shotgun.”
Carlson later met Kennedy for dinner, where they “debated how high up” an alleged “plot to destroy Bobby” went. “Tucker, by then, was telling people, including Olivia, that Bobby was being blackmailed by Israel,” Lizza wrote. “In terms of conspiracy theorists, he was like the Alex Jones to Bobby’s Oliver Stone.”
“Bobby just thought it was me, possibly working with Olivia,” Lizza added. “But Tucker thought it was a much bigger deep-state plot to destroy Trump by destroying Bobby. He assumed I was just the tip of the spear.”
Lizza ended his latest installment with a cliffhanger. A friend of Nuzzi’s warned: “Olivia talked to Bobby, and he’s making her do something really, really crazy.”
