John Jefferson
Fox News host Martha MacCallum confronted Robert F Kennedy Jr about his alleged sexting scandal with New York Magazine’s star reporter Olivia Nuzzi live on air on Wednesday.
Rumors began swirling last Thursday when the magazine announced that Nuzzi, 31, had been placed on leave after disclosing a “personal relationship” with “a former subject” relevant to the election. The magazine’s media reporter Oliver Darcy revealed soon after that the alleged mystery subject was 70-year-old RFK Jr.
MacCallum brought up the alleged scandal on air on Fox News on Wednesday.
“I want to give you an opportunity to address some headlines,” she said.
Nodding to wild, resurfaced stories that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park and beheaded a dead whale with a chainsaw, she said: “Because you seem to be surrounded by, you know, scandals and old stories that keep coming up about animals and all of this.”
She continued: “The latest one is an inappropriate relationship with a New York Magazine political reporter who was covering your campaign.
“It’s gotten a lot of attention, so what do you say to your supporters who question your behavior and want to know what’s going on?”
RFK Jr quickly tried to shut down the question.
“I never comment on those kind of stories,” he replied, telling the news anchor he was happy to discuss other topics, such as health and ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“But as a person do you have any regrets about any-” she continued to ask.
RFK Jr firmly repeated himself: “Like I said, I don’t make comments on it.”
MacCallum backed down, but added that she wanted to give him the “opportunity to answer it because it’s been out there, but we thank you very much for being here, as always.”
RFK Jr, who has been married to actor Cheryl Hines for a little over 10 years, apparently boasted to his friends about receiving intimate photos from Nuzzi, according to reports from The Daily Beast and Puck News last week.
These boasts managed to work their way back to Nuzzi’s boss, New York Magazine editor David Haskell, resulting in the journalist being put on leave while a review is carried out.
“Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” the statement from New York Magazine reads.
Nuzzi released her own statement denying the relationship with Kennedy was physical.
“Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal,” she said. “During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source.
She added: “The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.”
A spokesperson for RFK Jr told The New York Times that he had met Nuzzi “once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”
The Independent has contacted RFK Jr and Nuzzi for further comment.
Hines is RFK Jr’s third wife. His first marriage to Emily Black ended in divorce in 1994, while his second wife Mary Richardson died by suicide in 2012, two years after he filed for divorce.
On Friday, Nuzzi’s partner Ryan Lizza, a reporter at Politico, released a statement which referred to Nuzzi as his “ex-finacée”. It is not clear when the couple parted ways.
“Because of my connection to this story through my ex-fiancée, my editors and I have agreed that I won’t be involved in any coverage of Kennedy in Playbook or elsewhere at POLITICO,” Lizza said.
Judging by social media posts, the couple had been engaged since September 2022.
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