WASHINGTON – Vanity Fair and its West Coast editor Olivia Nuzzi have parted ways after the political journalist's troubled book rollout prompted fresh scrutiny of her allegedly unethical relationship with then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"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," spokespeople for Nuzzi and the Condé Nast-owned magazine said in a joint statement to USA TODAY.

The split comes as controversy continues to swirl around Nuzzi, formerly of New York Magazine, over her past dalliance with Kennedy, now the Health and Human Services secretary under President Donald Trump. Though the scandal first came to light in the fall of 2024, it has recaptured the attention of Washington insiders amid new revelations in Nuzzi's just-released tell-all, "American Canto."

In the book, Nuzzi offers fresh details about her relationship with an unnamed politician, widely understood to be Kennedy. She says that she told him she loved him, despite the increasingly unethical nature of the relationship. Nuzzi covered and profiled Kennedy as part of her job as a journalist. Representatives for Kennedy, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines, have previously denied that any physical relationship took place between himself and Nuzzi.

In September, long after the scandal became public knowledge, Vanity Fair hired Nuzzi as its West Coast editor. Nuzzi had moved to Malibu, California, after saying she felt exiled from the political spheres of Washington, DC.

Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olivia Nuzzi to leave Vanity Fair amid troubled book rollout

Reporting by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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