Journalist Olivia Nuzzi, a writer for New York Magazine and Politico, has gone on the record regarding her public accusations and ensuing court filing that her former fiancé Ryan Lizza allegedly created and launched a blackmail and harassment campaign against her. In court papers, Ms. Nuzzi accuses her ex-fiancé of attacking her via blackmail and harassment about her personal relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, after Ms. Nuzzi and Ms. Lizza broke up.

Although the now public fact that the personal relationship Ms. Nuzzi had with a public figure was RFK, he is not mentioned by name in the court documents. However, in a statement Ms. Nuzzi sent to the Daily Mail, referring to RFK, she said, “The nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal.” Nuzzi also explained that their relationship was “not physical.”

Ms. Nuzzi filed a complaint in the Washington, DC’s Superior Court alleging the harassment and blackmail charges against Mr. Lizza, who strongly denies any wrongdoing.

In court documents, Ms. Nuzzi said that Mr. Lizza “explicitly threatened to make public personal information about me to destroy my life, career, and reputation—a threat he has since carried out.”

Mr. Lizza is the Chief Washington Correspondent for POLITICO and also wrote the article in 2017 about his interview with former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. This article resulted in Scaramucci's dismissal.

The now infamous high-profile couple’s breakup, a secret relationship with then-presidential candidate RFK, journalistic ethics, and now a lawsuit are presently the stuff of deep discussions in the media.

A journalist who is privately close to her subject, especially a very famous subject who is running for president at the time, is supposed to notify her editors of the relationship. Transparency in journalism is a key feature of the Fourth Estate, which is supposed to be open with the public in articles presented as objective.

Beyond the lawsuit against her former fiancé, Ms. Nuzzi now faces a viral whirlpool as national press figures argue about ethical standards for journalists.

Legally, in the US, a journalist must notify readers if they are being paid for an endorsement, but having a personal relationship with an interviewee is not illegal.

Ms. Nuzzi wrote a featured article in New York magazine without disclosing her personal relationship at the time with her subject, then-Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., 70, either to her editors or the public.

The journalist admitted she “had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.” After her relationship with RFK became public in August, New York Magazine placed Ms. Nuzzi on leave while it used a third party to review the facts.

Politico announced this week that Mr. Lizza would be on a leave of absence while the outlet also conducts its own investigation. In a public statement, Politico said, “POLITICO and Ryan Lizza have mutually agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest for him to step back and take a leave of absence while an investigation is conducted.”

In court, Ms. Nuzzi was successful in getting a temporary no-contact order against her ex-fiancé last week. The judge said that Mr. Lizza could appear before him and reply before the next hearing in the case, slated for October 15.

Following Ms. Nuzzi’s court filing and temporary no-contact order issued by a judge against Mr. Lizza, he sent a statement to CNN for publication. In his statement he said, “I am saddened that my ex-fiancée would resort to making a series of false accusations against me as a way to divert attention from her own personal and professional failings. I emphatically deny these allegations and I will defend myself against them vigorously and successfully.”

Allegations in court documents by Ms. Nuzzi against Mr. Lizza in court papers include: harassment starting in July 2024; blackmail to convince her to return to him in their relationship; the theft of Ms. Lizza’s personal device; hacking her personal device; leaking anonymous information about her to the press; possibly doctoring information; creating and impersonating “an anonymous campaign operative”; and perhaps “through a third party or anonymous channel,” telling her employer about her relationship with RFK, which she calls “the matter.”

Lastly, Ms. Nuzzi claims that due to a book contract they had, Mr. Lizza threatened her with physical violence “to assume his share of financial responsibility.”

In a prior case made public in 2017, Mr. Lizza was fired by New Yorker magazine due to accusations of ‘improper sexual conduct.’