There are so many unanswered questions with this Olivia Nuzzi debacle. Some questions have been answered by Nuzzi’s ex-fiance Ryan Lizza, in his Substack series which has (imo) effectively destroyed Nuzzi’s status as a journalist and sane person. It’s through Lizza’s narrative that we learned what Nuzzi did for Robert Kennedy Jr after she decided she was in love with him. We also learned that she crossed dozens of ethical boundaries with Kennedy and on his behalf, not to mention her 2020 affair with Mark Sanford. But I still have questions: why did Vanity Fair even bother to hire her this year? Why didn’t New York Magazine have the balls to undertake a real investigation into her gross misconduct? And most importantly, what kind of advance did Nuzzi get for American Canto? Whatever Simon and Schuster gave her, they’re never making that money back. American Canto (which she wrote on her phone, remember) only sold 1,165 copies in its first week.
Journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s new book “American Canto” sold only 1,165 hardcover copies in its first week on the shelves, according to new data compiled by tracker NPDBookScan. The book was savaged in reviews, with the New York Times calling it “self-serious and altogether disappointing” and the Washington Post writing that she “tries and fails to save her reputation in the book.”
“I think there’s a broad understanding her credibility has been shredded and the idea of her as a reliable narrator in telling any story, even hers, not many readers are going to believe that,” said a publishing industry insider granted anonymity to speak candidly. The person called it a “publishing debacle of epic proportions” and said that given Nuzzi’s earlier reputation — she was a star magazine writer who was given glowing treatment in a Times profile last month — the sales expectation would be at least 5,000 hardcover copies in its first week. BookScan data captures around 70 percent of hardcover sales and does not track e-book and audio uploads.
Since Nuzzi started promoting the book, her former fiancé, journalist Ryan Lizza, has published a series of Substack posts describing her relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and alleged ethical breaches. Lizza, a former POLITICO staffer, issued his fifth installment on Wednesday night. Nuzzi has called Lizza’s writings “harmful revenge p0rn”; he says she can’t handle the truth and so is blaming him for her failings.
“Heads should roll over the disaster, whether it’s crisis PR consultants involved or editors,” the publishing industry insider added. “It’s a disaster from start to finish.”
A person close to Nuzzi said the book “had a respectable first week” for a new author “despite an unprecedented and vengeful harassment campaign aimed solely at ruining the book’s release.”
I haven’t even really analyzed Nuzzi’s hysterical tantrums about Lizza’s Substack – “an unprecedented and vengeful harassment campaign…” O RLY? Because Lizza’s Part 5 dropped on Wednesday night, and he details Nuzzi’s unprecedented and vengeful smear campaign aimed at HIM as she melodramatically tried to save her reputation AND still continue her affair with Robert Kennedy Jr. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a healthy dash of vengeance in Lizza’s Substack, but I believe it’s more than warranted. I also believe Lizza is doing a public service by ensuring that Nuzzi is forever blacklisted from journalism.
I’m including a link to Lizza’s latest Substack below. He picks up after he spoke to Robert Kennedy Jr. and broken off his engagement to Nuzzi. He tries to give Nuzzi advice to salvage her career but she doesn’t take it, and so many people know about Nuzzi’s affair with Kennedy that various journalists are starting to pick up on the story. Kennedy got looped back into the toxic drama and he had Gavin De Becker threaten Lizza. Lizza also described Nuzzi’s increasingly erratic and manic behavior, some of which her friends claimed was Adderall-induced. And finally, Lizza says flat-out that Nuzzi and Kennedy schemed to file a false FBI report about him.
Part 5: Loyalty Test
Kara Swisher was blunt: now that she knew about Olivia Nuzzi’s affair with Bobby Kennedy, she had an obligation to tell David Haskell, the editor of New York magazine.I asked Kara to hold off for a few days while I tried to convince Olivia to disclose the…
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) December 11, 2025
Screencaps courtesy of The Bulwark, photos courtesy of Lizza’s IG.
