Olivia Nuzzi's Book Launch Spirals as Vanity Fair Cuts Ties Amid RFK Jr Scandal

Olivia Nuzzi's long-anticipated return to public life with the publication of her memoir American Canto has descended into controversy after Vanity Fairconfirmed it has ended its professional relationship with the journalist amid fallout linked to her connection with US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and serious questions surrounding journalistic ethics.

On Friday, 5 December, Condé Nast released a brief statement confirming the split.

'Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year,' the company said, with The Wall Street Journal first reporting the decision.

The announcement came just days after American Canto reached bookshelves and extracts appeared in Vanity Fair, marking Nuzzi's only published work during her short-lived tenure as the magazine's West Coast editor. She had been brought on under a fixed-term deal scheduled to end later in 2025.

From Political Reporter to Centre of a Storm

Nuzzi was once regarded as a rising star of American political journalism, securing sought-after interviews with figures such as Donald Trump and Kennedy himself while working for New York magazine.

Her career, however, was abruptly derailed when reports emerged of an alleged relationship with Kennedy during the period she had been covering him professionally.

In its editorial response to the scandal, Vanity Fair observed that the shift from journalist to subject is a difficult transition few manage successfully.

'"Reporter" and "subject" are antonyms for a reason. They are different roles that require different skill sets to excel within,' the magazine wrote.

The piece suggested Nuzzi had struggled to navigate the glare of sudden personal notoriety, adding that the intense public attention surrounding her memoir demonstrated that 'Trumpian shamelessness or reality stardom isn't as easy to pull off as it looks'.

A Memoir Launch That Fell Flat

Although American Canto was billed as Nuzzi's attempt to shape her narrative and salvage her reputation, its release has only added to the turmoil.

Vanity Fair noted that while the book represents 'a sharp break from Nuzzi's previous prose style', its rollout exposed 'a profound misunderstanding of what's demanded from those in the limelight's harsh glare'.

Reviews have been blunt, criticising the memoir's elliptical and embellished language while accusing it of skating around the central controversy without genuine transparency.

Nuzzi's Stark Instagram Confession

On publication day, Nuzzi herself appeared to acknowledge the disorder surrounding the launch with a strikingly self-aware Instagram post titled Signs Your Book Rollout Has Gone Awry.

In bullet-point fashion, she shared lines that seemed to mirror the chaos of the moment:

'Your agents text you unprompted with no elaboration, "I love you."'
'Monica Lewinsky reaches out to check on your mental health.'

Beneath the post, Nuzzi added the blunt caption:

'American Canto is out today and the psychosis is mass.'

The post was widely shared and interpreted as a rare moment of gallows humour from an author watching her carefully planned comeback falter in real time.

Admissions of Failure

Nuzzi has made limited public comments addressing the professional fallout. During an interview with Tim Miller on The Bulwark podcast, she acknowledged crossing ethical boundaries.

'I think shame is really important,' she said. 'I did something wrong. Those ethics rules exist for a reason. They're really good rules. And I had violated that.'

Yet critics argue that American Canto does little to meaningfully grapple with accountability. Vanity Fair described the book's writing style as 'not demure, it's self-flattering', suggesting the memoir avoids confronting the substance of her mistakes.

Lizza's Substack Offensive

Adding fuel to the controversy is Nuzzi's former fiancé, political journalist Ryan Lizza, who has released a series of Substack posts accusing her of extensive ethical misconduct.

Among the claims are allegations that Nuzzi attempted to suppress unfavourable coverage of Kennedy's presidential campaign and pursued inappropriate relationships with political figures she was reporting on, including former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

Nuzzi has dismissed Lizza's disclosures as 'obsessive and violating fan fiction-slash-revenge porn'. Lizza maintains that 'telling the truth is not harassment'.

When Journalism Meets Celebrity

Vanity Fair framed the escalating saga as emblematic of a widening conflict between traditional journalism and influencer culture.

'Every word these two publish puts them further away from classical reportage and closer to the role of influencer,' the magazine wrote, warning that media institutions face increasing challenges when high-profile personalities blur professional boundaries in pursuit of personal visibility.

An Uncertain Future

Nuzzi has stated that she does not plan to return to political reporting but has given little indication of where her career may head next.

As Vanity Fair concluded: 'American Canto is not a road back into legitimacy ... it's a final burning of a bridge she crossed long ago.'

What was intended as a literary rehabilitation has instead become a cautionary tale about ethics, fame and the unforgiving glare of public scrutiny.

And in Nuzzi's own stark words on social media, the collapse of her comeback hardly requires further explanation: 'The psychosis is mass.'