Olivia Nuzzi’s Ex Alleges She Had Affair with Politician Mark Sanford Before RFK Jr. Scandal

Embattled journalist Olivia Nuzzi is making headlines once again for her dating life — this time being accused of having an affair with 2020 presidential candidate Mark Sanford long before the controversy involving her and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé, Ryan Lizza, made the allegation in his online newsletter, Telos News, in a piece titled “Part 1: How I Found Out,” published on Monday, November 17. He claims he discovered an “unfinished love letter” written to “Mark” dated March 5, 2020.

According to Lizza, the letter “included enough details to confirm a physical relationship and the hint of some kind of falling out.”

Lizza claimed he pieced together the details, noting that the intended recipient was “a famous politician, 32 years older than Olivia, and well-known for a sex scandal.”

“But more importantly, he was a presidential candidate, a source, and the subject of Olivia’s recent profile for New York,” Lizza’s newsletter continued, referring to Nuzzi’s former workplace, New York Magazine.

He went on to call the revelation “devastating.”

“She later explained to me that she became ‘infatuated’ with him after their interview, that she couldn’t get him out of her head, and that as her obsession intensified, she sent him increasingly risqué pictures and texts, secretly followed him on the campaign trail when she told me she was out covering other candidates, and fantasized about a rendezvous, which was consummated at his home in South Carolina one night after she went dark on me and made up a story about how she was dealing with a crisis concerning her sick mother,” he alleges.

Lizza, who says he and Nuzzi had been working together on a book proposal about the 2020 presidential campaign, wrote that he was “sure our relationship was over.”

He also claims he called his agent, questioning how the pair could co-write a book “if Olivia had a sexual relationship with one of the candidates?”

Sanford, now 62, and Nuzzi have yet to comment on the allegations.

Sanford served as South Carolina’s former governor from 2003 to 2011. He also represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and ran for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

He previously made headlines in 2009 when he disappeared from the state for several days before admitting to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

Meanwhile, Nuzzi has spent the past year under scrutiny for a separate scandal involving another 2024 presidential contender, RFK Jr. The situation — involving what has been described as a “sexting relationship” after she profiled him in 2023 — is reportedly addressed in her upcoming memoir, American Canto, out December 2.