Friends of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are claiming that star reporter Olivia Nuzzi “set him up” by repeatedly sending him seductive photographs even after her number had been blocked, according to new reports.
The New York Magazine writer was “obsessed” with him and Kennedy allegedly intends to file a civil suit against the journalist, sources close to the scion told the New York Post over the weekend.
Allies of the former independent presidential candidate say that after Nuzzi interviewed the then White House hopeful in California for an article she pursued him “aggressively.”
“She targeted him pretty hard. Bobby was blocking her continually. It was a little scary,” a source told the Post. “She was obsessed with him. I think she still is.”
Nuzzi’s camp refuted Kennedy and his allies’ claims that she was “obsessed” with the environmental advocate turned politician and singlehandedly instigated the “digital relationship,” but did acknowledge that the fling was, at times, tense.
“It’s absolutely untrue that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of how high pressure and high risk the circumstances were and for that reason their communication was very on and off,” a person close to the politics reporter told the Post.
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Reporter Olivia Nuzzi was put on leave from New York Magazine after editors became aware of an inappropriate relationship between her and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
According to Jessica Read Kraus, an “independent” journalist and self-described friend of Kennedy, the self proclaimed “Make America Healthy Again” candidate first cut contact with Nuzzi after she allegedly made a flirtatious remark two weeks after her November, 2023 feature on him was published in New York.
“A few weeks later, Nuzzi emailed him, asking to be unblocked, claiming she had urgent information about a hit piece being prepared against him,” Kraus alleged in a Substack newsletter to her nearly 400,000 subscribers. “He unblocked her for that conversation, but later that night, she sent him a provocative picture, prompting him to block her again.”
Kraus said that for eight months, Kennedy kept Nuzzi blocked, except for when she would allegedly contact him from different email addresses and phone numbers, “insisting” they speak about “an imminent hit piece.”
“Once unblocked, she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist,” she continued.
Friends who Kraus spoke with said they believed Nuzzi “set him up.”
Diaries from 2001, reportedly belonging to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., detailed his serial philandering while married to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.
Go Nakamura/Reuters
Kennedy’s seeming inability to resist seduction mirrors his self-victimizing rhetoric described in diaries from 2001 obtained by the Post that meticulously detailed his serial philandering while married to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.
The then-environmental lawyer used the term “mugged” as if he was an unwilling participant when being unfaithful, and “victory” when he did not succumb to a woman’s temptations. In Kennedy’s version, he was entirely innocent. More than two decades later, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy’s tune has seemingly not changed.
According to security expert Gavin de Becker, who is supposedly investigating the Nuzzi-Kennedy “situation” for Kennedy, the former presidential candidate is weighing civil litigation against the reporter with the potential for future criminal referrals.
“This had nothing to do with romance,” said de Becker. “He was being chased by porn.”
Nuzzi and Kennedy’s alleged romantic entanglement began sometime after they met during his third-party presidential run last year and remained strictly digital. According to Puck News, the two began “sexting” with Nuzzi sending Kennedy “demure” nude photographs. “The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict,” Nuzzi said in a statement.
Kennedy is married to Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, while Nuzzi, at the time, was engaged to Politico reporter Ryan Lizza. She and Lizza have since split.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cheryl Hines married in 2014, but met while the then-environmental lawyer was still married to his second wife.
Mark Makela/Reuters
New York Magazine placed Nuzzi on leave Thursday after editors became aware of the boundary-crossing relationship. An independent investigation into the Washington correspondent’s conduct is pending.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s team officially denied the alleged affair, doubling down that he and Nuzzi only met in person “once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.” His wife has yet to comment on the scandal. But, according to Page Six, friends say the actress is “no pushover.”
Hines was spotted at a Milan Fashion Week afterparty Friday, apparently sans-wedding ring. While celebrating her birthday on Saturday, however, she shared pictures of her at a birthday gathering with both her daughter Catherine Young and Kennedy’s daughter Kyra.
Hines and Kennedy’s relationship has been the focus of past controversy. The pair met in 2006, while Kennedy was still married to his second wife, and began dating publicly in 2011, on the heels of him filing for divorce.
In 2014, the same year the actress and Kennedy wed, it was revealed that, during his second marriage, he had the contact information for dozens of women filed in an alphabetical list under the letter “G.” Mary Richardson Kennedy claimed the letter was short for “goomar,” Italian slang for mistress
One of the women on the list was Hines.
