Keith Olberman reveals past relationship with Olivia Nuzzi when she was 21 — and weighs in on RFK Jr.’s nude scandal

Former MSNBC host Keith Olberman on Tuesday gave details about his “surprisingly ordinary” relationship a decade ago with New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi and was embroiled in the Robert F Kennedy Jr. nudity scandal.

“We had dogs and tattoos and rings, and like all relationships, it was very nice at first. Then things happened, and we worked on it, and it ended,” Olberman said of their three-and-a-half-year relationship on his “Countdown” podcast Tuesday.

The reporter has not spoken to Nuzzi – who was 21 when she started dating the then 55-year-old – since their split nearly a decade ago.

He claimed he’s not “Nuzzi Nudes News Network” on the episode of his iHeart Radio podcast “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” but still addressed the scandal and spoke at length about their relationship — noting the initial shock and ” understandable” of her parents. in their age difference of 34 years.

“Seriously, almost the whole relationship was surprisingly ordinary,” Olberman said.

He spent every Christmas with her parents, often drinking coffee with her dad, and Nuzzi even had a closet in his house, he said. They also had a dog, Stevie, together—and Olberman credits Nuzzi with awakening his lifelong love of dogs.

“She did some strange things during the three and a half years she lasted. I’m sure so,” he admitted.

But he appeared to question claims that Nuzzi, 31, allegedly “bombed [RFK] with more and more pornographic photos and videos”, says a friend of the failed presidential candidate.

“Nothing I know about her then or now suggests that Olivia would have continued to send nude photos to a boy if he didn’t want them,” Olbermann said.

“For what it’s worth, I can’t defend any of her journalistic choices here, and I won’t. But in the meta-view of who’s right, who’s wrong here, she’s not the one who’s wrong here,” he added.

Nuzzi has been placed on leave from her role as White House correspondent for New York Magazine after her affair with Kennedy, 70, was revealed last week.

The star political reporter has denied being the aggressor in the situation, but acknowledged the inappropriate digital communication that began after New York published a November article she wrote about the then-White House hopeful.

“Sometimes she missed the consequences of her actions so much that no one around her would have said anything other than ‘How could you not know that?'” Olbermann said of his ex and some of her questionable journalistic choices. , noting the time she walked. at the home of a former Donald Trump campaign manager without an invitation and then told the Columbia Journalism Review about it.

Putting aside her journalistic choices, the podcast host said Nuzzi “will always have my support if she needs it.”

Olbermann, however, did not pass up the opportunity to joke about his ex’s predicament.

“I don’t want to come out here, but I’m starting to suspect she likes all the old guys. I mean, she was going to marry someone who was 20 years older than her,” he said, referring to her ex-fiancé, Politico reporter Ryan Lizza.

Nuzzi and Lizza, 50, were engaged at the time of her alleged fling with married RFK Jr., but have since split.

“Also, I’m old. On the other hand, I’m not as old as Bobby Kennedy. I win!” Olbermann continued with a boisterous laugh.

“The son of a whore is five years older than me. It clears my conscience a lot.”