Olivia Nuzzi, the political journalist who lost her position at New York Magazine and saw her Vanity Fair contract evaporate after revelations about an alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has reportedly moved on to a new high-profile relationship, this time with Vice co-founder Shane Smith.
The pair met in April and the relationship "began immediately," an unnamed source told Page Six. Both now live in Malibu, where they have been spotted together. A separate insider described the relationship simply: "It's romantic."
Neither Nuzzi nor Smith responded to Page Six for comment. Vice insiders said Nuzzi "isn't being considered for a job" at the company, and described Smith as "a single guy", free to date whomever he pleases.
The Nuzzi saga is worth tracking not because of who she dates, but because of what it reveals about how elite media institutions handle their own. When the RFK Jr. relationship came to light in September 2024, Nuzzi was serving as Washington correspondent for New York Magazine. The outlet placed her on leave pending an investigation. She never returned.
The details that emerged were not minor. Page Six reported in September 2024 that Kennedy had carried on a relationship with Nuzzi while married to actress Cheryl Hines. A week later, Page Six reported that the two had maintained a phone-based relationship, told each other they were in love, and engaged in intimate FaceTime calls. Kennedy, for his part, claimed he and Nuzzi "only met once for an interview."
That gap, between what Kennedy said publicly and what sources described privately, was never fully resolved. But the professional damage to Nuzzi was real and swift. She lost not one but two jobs.
After leaving New York Magazine, Nuzzi landed at Vanity Fair, which signed her as its West Coast editor. The hire drew criticism at the time. Then came additional allegations tied to the RFK Jr. episode, and by December 2025, Page Six reported on questions about Nuzzi's future at the magazine. Vanity Fair ultimately let her contract lapse.
Two major mastheads. Two exits. And yet Nuzzi has remained a figure of fascination in media circles, less for her journalism than for her personal entanglements with powerful men.
Her former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, himself a former Politico writer, wrote an account of the Nuzzi-Kennedy episode. In it, he suggested Nuzzi had previously dated Keith Olbermann, described as a much-older ESPN writer, and former Sen. Mark Sanford. Neither Sanford nor Nuzzi addressed those claims publicly.
Shane Smith built Vice from an underground magazine into a sprawling media company. Vice grew into a corporate giant, then went bankrupt, and is now in the process of restructuring. Smith remains its co-founder and a prominent figure in media and entertainment.
The Status newsletter first reported earlier this week that Nuzzi had been spotted with Smith in Malibu, sparking speculation that she might begin working for Vice. Vice insiders pushed back on that idea, saying she is not being considered for any role at the company.
Nuzzi has also written a book titled "American Canto," though details about its publication remain thin.
The broader pattern here is one that mainstream media outlets prefer to discuss only in gossip columns, never in editorials. A journalist covering a presidential candidate allegedly carried on an intimate relationship with that candidate. She lost two jobs, but faced no broader professional reckoning from the industry that claims to police conflicts of interest with religious fervor.
Imagine, for a moment, that a conservative journalist had maintained a secret romantic relationship with a Republican candidate while covering that candidate's campaign. The calls for industry-wide soul-searching would be deafening. Standards would be invoked. Panels would be convened. Careers would end permanently.
Instead, Nuzzi landed a West Coast editorship at one of the most prestigious magazines in the country. When that fell apart, she settled into Malibu life and, by all accounts, moved on to another powerful media figure. The professional consequences, such as they were, amounted to a lateral move and a soft landing.
None of this is illegal. Shane Smith is a single man. Nuzzi is free to date whomever she likes. But the ease with which the media establishment absorbs its own scandals, the quiet contract lapses, the unnamed insiders offering gentle context, the refusal to apply the same standards inward that they demand outward, tells you everything about how that establishment actually operates.
New York Magazine never publicly disclosed the outcome of its internal investigation into Nuzzi's conduct. The specifics of what the magazine found, or didn't find, remain unknown. Likewise, the precise circumstances under which Vanity Fair let her contract lapse have not been detailed publicly.
Kennedy's claim that he met Nuzzi only once for an interview stands in direct tension with sourced accounts of an extended intimate relationship. No resolution to that contradiction has emerged from either party.
And now, with Nuzzi reportedly in a new relationship with the co-founder of a media company currently rebuilding itself from bankruptcy, the question of whether personal entanglements will again intersect with professional ones remains open.
In media, the rules about conflicts of interest are strict and clear, right up until they apply to the people who write them.
