Olivia Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza threw gasoline on their legal feud in the wake of the star New York Magazine journalist’s affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filing a complaint Monday that claims the politician wanted to “impregnate” and “control” her.
In court documents filed Monday in Washington D.C.’s Superior Court by Poltico’s Lizza in response to Nuzzi claiming he organized a blackmail campaign against her, more details were alleged about the reporter and RFK Jr.’s personal relationship. According to Lizza, Nuzzi confided in him in August that her relationship with the one-time Independent presidential hopeful was “toxic,” “unhealthy” and “psychotic” and that Kennedy wanted to “possess,” “control” and “impregnate” her.
“She told me that there was a huge power disparity between them and that he manipulated her,” Lizza said in Monday’s filing.
Nuzzi claimed in a court filing earlier this month that Lizza stole and hacked her devices in August and began spreading word of her digital affair with Kennedy, whom the Washington, D.C. correspondent profiled in 2023, to their peers. He claimed such allegations are false in his own complaint this week.
“No device of Ms. Nuzzi’s was ever hacked to learn any of this information,” Lizza said. “Almost everything I know about her affair comes directly from Ms. Nuzzi herself.”
According to Lizza, he learned of Nuzzi and Kennedy’s relationship on Aug. 17 and asked her to move out shortly after. He said Nuzzi later “pleaded with me to consider returning to the relationship, telling me her affair ‘wasn’t real’ and that ‘I don’t want to give up’ on our relationship.”
This goes against a portion of Nuzzi’s complaint where she claimed his threats were in pursuit of the two of them getting back together.
“Her allegation of [me] trying to blackmail her back into our relationship is a disgraceful lie contradicted by the most basic facts,” Lizza said. “Ms. Nuzzi’s own recklessness is solely responsible for the public ridicule, humiliation and professional damage she says she has suffered.”
Nuzzi’s counsel issued a statement to media in response to Lizza’s filing calling the Politico reporter’s claims “salacious” and “irrelevant.”
“Filings such as this, full of salacious and irrelevant claims that we will not dignify with a response, further his efforts, as described in her initial filing for the protective order,” the statement said. “Her only objective in seeking intervention from law enforcement and the court is to ensure her safety and be left alone.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news of Lizza’s complaint, with additional reporting by The Daily Beast and CNN, the latter of which first broke the news of Nuzzi’s complaint against her ex-fiance on Oct. 1.
Both Lizza and Nuzzi are on leave from Politico and New York Magazine, respectively, as their legal feud continues to play out and internal probes are conducted.
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