Exclusive | Read the cryptic note that helped Ryan Lizza realize Olivia Nuzzi had an affair with Mark Sanford: ‘I wish I hadn’t touched you’
In March 2020, journalist Ryan Lizza stumbled over a note that wasn’t meant for him in his Georgetown townhouse. His live‑in girlfriend, Olivia Nuzzi, had scribbled an apology on a hotel notepad, and the paper had slipped out of her backpack onto the floor.
The handwritten letter, left unfinished on a Kimpton Hotel pad dated March 5, read: “Mark, I am sorry. I can’t say that I wish I hadn’t touched you, hadn’t.” Lizza publicly revealed that the “Mark” in question was former 2020 Republican presidential hopeful Mark Sanford. The note was one of three drafts written by Nuzzi that Lizza later unpacked in his expose of her alleged indiscretions.
The pages found in his home offered early proof that Nuzzi had crossed the line between reporter and source by engaging in a sexual relationship with a political figure. In his tell‑all series on Nuzzi, Lizza emphasized that the note came from a trip‑to‑the‑hotel study session, marking the start of a pattern of behavior that would later include other high‑profile men.
The story spread through the media in late 2024 when Nuzzi published her memoir, American Canto, detailing her digital flirtations with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Six months later, Lizza released a web series that laid out a series of incidents in which Nuzzi pursued romantic connections with eminent men.
“It was a shock when I realized who he was,” Lizza recounted in a piece on Telos. “He was a presidential candidate, a source, and the focus of a recent New York Magazine profile written by Olivia.” He went on to describe how he’d reached out to his agent, saying, “We have a big problem. Olivia is sleeping with Mark Sanford,” and left listeners holding their breath.
Although the note never named Sanford directly, Lizza used context to connect the dots. He remembered that Nuzzi had spent increasing amounts of time in South Carolina, a state where Sanford was campaigning, and he extracted the truth from her.
After their interview, Nuzzi admitted she’d fallen “infatuated” with Sanford. According to Lizza, she sent him risqué images and messages while quietly shadowing him around the campaign trail. The affair allegedly included a night at Sanford’s South Carolina home, where Nuzzi reportedly “went dark” on Lizza, covering it up with a story about a crisis involving her sick mother.
Sanford, well known for a scandal in 2009 when he was caught having an affair during a presidential disappearance, had once claimed he was hiking the Appalachian Trail as an alibi. The truth was he had gone to Argentina to be with his mistress. A decade later he launched a long‑shot GOP primary bid against Donald Trump in 2020.
Ironically, Lizza landed in South Carolina the day after the alleged affair and had no idea what was happening the night before. He later arranged a lunch with Sanford and Nuzzi, a move that would push the situation into the spotlight. Nuzzi called Sanford, explained that Lizza was her boyfriend, and begged him to stop meeting with her—an act that threatened Lizza’s relationship with a valuable South Carolina source. Sanford told her not to contact him again until she was single.
Sanford’s request sparked a cycle of rewritten apologies on the hotel notepad, a copy of which Lizza recovered from Nuzzi’s bag. Other evidence he cited included a voice memo and a draft, “tabloid‑style news story” that Nuzzi had drafted about her romance with Sanford, aimed at anticipating a worst‑case scenario.
The fallout was described by Lizza as “devastating.” It forced the couple to shelve one book project, and in 2024 they cancelled another, the same year Nuzzi’s affair with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became public. “She had crossed a journalistic red line. How could we write about the campaign if Olivia had a sexual relationship with one of the candidates?” Lizza reflected upon discovering the abandoned note.
The Post tried multiple times to reach out to Sanford’s press office and to Nuzzi and her representatives for comment.
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