After New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in California, she became “obsessed” with him, hounding him via text messages and nearly blocking him multiple times, a source close to the Kennedy campaign told The Washington Post.
“She went after him aggressively,” a source said Saturday. “She was going after him pretty hard. Bobby was constantly stonewalling her. It was kind of scary. She was crazy about him. I think she still is.”
Nuzzi's camp denied that the situation was a “Fatal Attraction” type scenario or that she initiated the relationship, but didn't deny that the digital affair was tumultuous and suggested the pair may have stopped to text at times.
“There is absolutely no evidence that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of how pressurized and dangerous the situation was, which is why communication was so intermittent,” the person familiar with the matter said.
“In Olivia's opinion, calling it a relationship or a fling is completely inaccurate. It was a fling at best,” another source close to Nuzzi said.
The two allegedly began sexting after Nuzzi, 31, met up with the 70-year-old Kennedy scion in November. Feature Articles a source previously said of the then-White House candidate.
Nuzzi's relationship with Kennedy was entirely digital, but it also allegedly included some risqué photos from a Washington correspondent. PacNews reported He said late Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Mr. Kennedy, the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, was married to “Crazy Love” actress Cheryl Hines, while Mr. Nuzzi was engaged to fellow political reporter Ryan Lizza. Mr. Nuzzi and Mr. Lizza have since separated.
Kennedy, who ended his bid for the White House in August, did not show up Saturday to a family wedding in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, where Ted Kennedy's granddaughter, Grace Kennedy Allen, was due to be married.
He was scheduled to appear at a campaign event for Donald Trump in Nevada on Saturday night.
Friends of Kennedy Jr. said it was not unusual for women to approach Kennedy on the campaign trail, and The Washington Post reported that “sexy mature women” had made advances on Kennedy at his April 2023 campaign launch in Boston that day.
Nuzzi was placed on administrative leave on Thursday after editors at New York magazine became aware of the inappropriate relationship.
Kennedy's team has previously said that the only time Kennedy and Nuzzi met in person was “in an interview at Mr Nuzzi's request and which generated a smear campaign.”
Hines, who celebrated her 59th birthday on Saturday, has not commented on the scandal, but a source insisted to Page Six that Hines is “not a weak person.”
According to the Daily Mail, the actress was spotted at a Milan Fashion Week afterparty on Friday, where she had apparently ditched her wedding ring.
Kennedy has had troubled romantic relationships in the past, once keeping a list of 43 rumored lovers on his phone.
The Washington Post revealed in 2014 that Kennedy had listed contact information for dozens of women on an alphabetical list under the letter “G,” which his late second wife believed to stand for “goomar,” Italian slang for mistress. Kennedy declined to comment at the time.
One of the women on the list was Hines, who married Kennedy that year at the Kennedy family home in Hyannis Port.
“Despite his age and voice, the ladies are all crazy about Kennedy,” a source said Saturday.
Stephanie Speer, a spokeswoman for the RFK Jr. campaign, did not respond to a message Saturday asking about Kennedy's relationship with Nuzzi.
Asked about the diary on Friday, Kennedy said: “I don't think there is any way to get my diary or journal for 2001. I can't comment on that. I don't have the diary for 2001.”
