New York magazine reports that its highly regarded Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, is on leave after she revealed that she had violated the publication’s standards by having a personal relationship with a former reporter.

The Newsletter Status, who broke the storyand The New York Times both cite anonymous sources to identify Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the other person involved with Nuzzi. She did not confirm Kennedy’s involvement, and Kennedy said in a statement that he had met her only once.

David Haskell, editor in chief of New York magazine, said in a letter to employees Friday that Nuzzi told them the relationship began last December, “after we published her profile in November.” Her only published profile that month was of Kennedy. The relationship ended in August, he wrote.

It’s an explosive development for the magazine and Nuzzi, whose piece with an interview featuring Donald Trump, “Peering into Donald Trump’s Ear, and Soul,” was on the most recent cover. Haskell said online versions of the Trump story and one Nuzzi wrote about Biden this summer will direct readers to a note explaining the situation.

New York said in Thursday night’s letter that if Nuzzi had known about the relationship, it would not have been allowed to cover the presidential campaign.

New York reported that an internal investigation into her work found no improprieties or evidence of bias, but that Nuzzi is on leave while a more thorough external investigation is conducted.

“We regret this violation of our readers’ trust,” the magazine said, adding that a spokeswoman had no further comment. A spokesman for Kennedy, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines, did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.

Nuzzi said in a statement to Status that in early 2024, the nature of the communications between her and a former reporter became personal.

“At the time, I did not report on the subject directly or use them as a source,” she said. “The relationship was never physical, but should have been made public to avoid the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I disappointed, particularly my colleagues in New York.”

Haskell said New York editors “became aware of the personal nature of Olivia’s relationship a few days ago.” He said he was told the relationship ended in August.

In her story about Kennedy’s campaign published last November, “The Mind-Bending Politics of RFK Jr.’s Spoiler Campaign,” Nuzzi described a terrifying car ride and short walk with Kennedy and his dogs during an interview with him.

His name came up in a piece from March 2024 in The New York Times where Nuzzi, Frank Bruni and Joe Klein were discussing the state of the campaign at the time. “We are forgetting or deliberately ignoring something important about this election: It is not a two-man race. It is a three-man race,” Nuzzi said, noting that Kennedy was “poll[ing]competitively” at the time.

Status quoted a spokesman for Kennedy as saying, “Mr. Kennedy met Olivia Nuzzi only once in her life for an interview she requested, which resulted in a damning article.”

In Politico’s Playbook newsletter on Friday afternoon, that publication’s Ryan Lizza — Nuzzi’s ex-fiancée — wrote that “because of my connection to this story … my editors and I have agreed that I will not be involved in any reporting about Kennedy in Playbook or elsewhere at Politico.”

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him on http://x.com/dbauder.