Jeff Zucker breaks cover for pizza in first outing since quitting CNN

Ousted CNN president Jeff Zucker was seen out and about in New York City for the first time since stepping down from the network after failing to disclose his affair with another executive.

DailyMail.com spotted Zucker, 56, making a hasty foray into Midtown Manhattan to pick up some pizza on Friday afternoon. Dressed in a black puffer jacket and jeans, the former media executive appeared to be at pains to go unnoticed as he was driven from his address to the restaurant in a black SUV. 

Zucker made a dash to pick up his order before quickly getting back into the vehicle. He was later seen again walking in the city. 

Zucker, who had been president of CNN worldwide since 2013, left his $6million-a-year post on February 2 after admitting to employees that he violated the company’s Standards of Business Conduct when he failed to disclose a ‘consensual relationship’ with Allison Gollust, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the network. 

He has not commented on his departure aside from his resignation announcement earlier this month in which he acknowledged he was ‘wrong’ to not disclose the relationship when it began. 

Gollust was also spotted on Friday evening at her Upper East Side apartment. She confirmed the couple’s affair in a statement released to the New York Times earlier this month, saying she will continue to work at the network. 

Zucker and Gollust, 49, (pictured in 2019) had worked together for 20 years. They claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic but others say it far predates COVID.

Media sources have said the affair was an ‘open secret’ for more than 10 years – claiming even the doormen at their Manhattan apartment building tried to keep Allison and Zucker’s now ex-wife Caryn (pictured) from interacting. Both Zucker and Gollust are divorced. Zucker and his wife, Caryn, split in 2018 and Gollust is understood to have separated from her husband, Billy, around the same time, if not earlier.

Zucker and Gollust (pictured with her ex-husband in 2008) lived in the same apartment building on the Upper East Side with their respective families until Jeff sold his in 2020, after he and his ex-wife Caryn Nathanson split. He resided in apartment 3W, while Allison lived in the unit right above him – which she still owns.

Sources also pointed out that the pair were often seen out in public together – even as Gollust continued to deny they were in a relationship and would brand comments to he contrary as ‘offensive.’ 

Their secret relationship emerged when Zucker was interviewed as part of an investigation into ousted CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was fired as a primetime host in December. Cuomo was sacked for inappropriately consulting his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, through accusations of sexual harassment. It has since emerged that Cuomo was the one who raised the affair to executives. 

Cuomo’s attorneys are said to have told Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia – which is CNN’s parent company. He then informed AT&T boss John Stankey. 

Cuomo, 51, meanwhile was snapped enjoying a break at a ritzy Palm Beach hotel over the weekend after CNN agreed to pay him half his $18 million contract in the wake of his dismissal. Cuomo had been fighting for the seven-figure payout that he claimed remained on his contract and has insisted he should not have been fired for any kind of conflict or breach of company protocols, when Zucker and Gollust were in a conflict of their own.