Drugs, sexting and Trump’s tantrums: RFK’s alleged ‘digital lover’ Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir lands
MEMOIR
American Canto
Olivia Nuzzi
Simon & Schuster, $49.99
Journalists must abide by a few select rules, perhaps none more important than to never blur the line between reporter and source. Olivia Nuzzi, a wunderkind journalist previously at New York Magazine, broke this prohibition when she engaged in a “digital affair” with one of her subjects: Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr.
Another tenet, perhaps less appreciated, is that writing a tell-all book about the saga will invariably redeem your public image. Her former editor even wonders, after the news breaks of her affair with Kennedy, whether “[she] could write [her] way out of it”. After finishing her confected new memoir American Canto, it’s clear the journalist can’t parlay this misstep into a loftier project.
The memoir gives a kaleidoscopic chronicle of her years reporting on Donald Trump, first his initial presidential run and then his time in office. Brief interludes then cover her questionable relationship with former subject RFK Jr, whom she profiled for New York Magazine as he launched his own 2024 presidential run.
It proves hard to trust this journalist-as-subject retelling her side, especially given the 32-year-old’s fondness for opacity describing the “affair” and dishonestly to others (she repeatedly lied to an editor about her relationship). Stilted metaphors about fires, flags and brain worms – paired with impressionistic vignettes about Trump – attempt to elevate the book into a trenchant and clear-eyed portrait of America today. But American Canto isn’t this.
Nuzzi in 2023, when she was New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent.Credit: AP
First some background. After first profiling the 71-year-old Kennedy for a story, then – and only then – did she begin a “digital” relationship with the Camelot scion. More recently, her ex-fiance, fellow journalist Ryan Lizza, has gone scorched earth on his Substack, claiming past impropriety between Nuzzi and others profiled, including presidential candidate Mark Sanford. Lizza has also claimed Nuzzi became a “political operative” for RFK Jr, allegedly feeding information back to the politician himself.
Tabloids, meanwhile, have dug into Nuzzi’s history and uncovered Jailbait, a song she reportedly recorded as a teenager: “Sixteen will get you 20, I’ve got you locked for life/ Jailbait, I’m jailbait.”
RFK Jr, as lover and confidant, may have only appeared after the piece was filed, but Nuzzi elides explaining this further. With eyes that were “blue as the flame”, the often “shirtless” Kennedy fed her endless paeans: from professing to “tak[ing] a bullet” to telling the journalist that “he wanted [her] to have his baby”. The politician also apparently had a habit of regularly showing Nuzzi photos of his younger – and more virile – self.
