Embattled political journalist Olivia Nuzzi allegedly compared Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa while giving him fashion advice during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Nuzzi made the comments in an alleged “strategy memo” for RFK Jr., which was published by her former fiancé, Ryan Lizz, via his Telos News Substack.
Lizza described his ex’s actions as having “crossed the line from journalist to political operative” during her emotional affair with the now-Health and Human Services Secretary.
Nuzzi’s lengthy memo was reportedly written ahead of the June 2024 debate between then-President Joe Biden and now-President Donald Trump, in which RFK Jr. could not participate due to his poor polling numbers.
“It sucks and it’s unfair that CNN and the major parties colluded to exclude you, but you have to deal with that reality as it is,” she wrote in the rambling note.
Nuzzi then offered up some wardrobe advice for the Kennedy scion.
“Not to be all Naomi Wolf advising Al Gore,” she began. “But I would wear a (blue — unlike Gore, you are a summer) suit and your standard thin tie so that those clips achieve the same thing aesthetically that your actual presence at the debate would achieve in terms of signaling both plausibility and a contrast.”
Nuzzi then explained that the “takeaway” from his look should be more like Rocky — the title character played by Sylvester Stallone in the 1976 film — while “the other candidates are Rocky and Bullwinkle,” referring to the animated squirrel and moose.
She encouraged RFK Jr. to set up an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters to discuss his debate night plans, saying that the anchor would be her “first choice.”
“If he doesn’t go for it, I would forget primetime and offer it to ‘Fox & Friends,’ ‘The Five,’ or ‘Outnumbered,’” she wrote. “If Fox turns it down, I would offer it to Piers [Morgan] in conjunction with the Daily Mail, with an agreement about how long the story must stay on their homepage, and since they have British media ethics you can probably dictate — carefully — other terms about the tenor of the story.”
The Vanity Fair editor said he should turn to Newsmax or News Nation as a “last resort.”
She wrapped up the memo by expressing her love and support for him.
“You are the best candidate, and the people who already know that came to that belief because they respect you and your ideas,” she wrote. “Focus on your ideas. Just as you know what’s best for the country, you know best what you should do on your campaign, and whatever you decide, you’ll be great.
“I love you,” she concluded with a heart and kiss emoji.
Lizza exposed the alleged memo a day after Nuzzi’s controversial memoir, “American Canto,” debuted to scathing reviews — with one critic dubbing the tome a “tell-nothing memoir.”
Nuzzi, 32, made headlines after her sexting scandalwith RFK Jr., 71, came to light in September 2024, though Kennedy, who is married to Cheryl Hines, denied that they ever had an affair and claimed they only met once for an interview.
Nuzzi, for her part, claimed things never got physical — though she wrote in her book that Kennedy wanted her to have his baby.
Meanwhile, sources told Page Six this week that Nuzzi may already be out at Condé Nast just four months after being hired.
The post Olivia Nuzzi compares RFK Jr. to ‘Rocky,’ gives him fashion advice in private note released by her ex appeared first on Page Six.
