WASHINGTON — He was having Nuzzi it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy gave The Post a steely glare and shunned questions about his alleged affair with scandal-scarred reporter Olivia Nuzzi.
“Ryan Lizza published a memo that he claims Olivia Nuzzi wrote for you. Is that legit?” The Post hastily asked him while the political scoin was exiting a press conference at Ronald Reagan National Airport Monday.
Kennedy, 71, who once allegedly lamented his “lust demons” in a sex diary, didn’t say a peep in response and maintained his silence when pressed several times about the alleged affair.
Another reporter asked the HHS secretary about vaccines, but the Kennedy scion ignored those questions as well. Eventually, security edged reporters away, and Kennedy got into his SUV and took off.
The health boss has denied having a sexting affair with Nuzzi, but he’s largely been quiet on the various twists and turns of the sordid tale that has consumed the DC beltway press.
Last week, Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé and veteran reporter Ryan Lizza published on his Telos Substack what he claimed was a strategy memo that Nuzzi penned for Kennedy during the thick of the 2024 presidential election cycle.
The then-New York Magazine scribe, who had done a profile piece on the presidential candidate, likened him in the alleged memo to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa and gave advice on how to counter-program the infamous June 27, 2024, debate between the then-GOP candidate Donlad Trump and then-President Joe Biden.
“It sucks, and it’s unfair that CNN and the major parties colluded to exclude you, but you have to deal with that reality as it is,” she wrote in the alleged memo, according to Lizza.
Lizza, who got engaged with Nuzzi in the fall of 2022 before calling it off in August 2024, cited the alleged memo in his public tell-all series on his former flame.
The ex-Politico Playbook writer dinged her for crossing “the line from journalist to political operative” and faulted her for blowing up two of their joint book projects by having an affair with key sources.
“You are the best candidate, and the people who already know that came to that belief because they respect you and your ideas,” Nuzzi allegedly wrote. “Just as you know what’s best for the country, you know best what you should do on your campaign, and whatever you decide, you’ll be great.”
“I love you,” she added with heart and kissing lips emojis.
Nuzzi detailed her alleged affair with Kennedy in her “American Canto” tome, which hit bookshelves last week. She’s publicly claimed that the HHS honcho wanted her to have his baby.
While Nuzzi has admitted to a scandalous tryst with Kennedy, she’s contended that Lizza’s telling of it is a “combination of like fan fiction and revenge porn.”
Earlier this year, she landed a gig as a West Coast editor for Vanity Fair, but last week, Nuzzi confirmed that she is parting ways with the outlet amid renewed scrutiny over the Kennedy debacle.
Kennedy’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, has privately been “irate” over the scandal and called Nuzzi a “liar,” The Post previously reported.
