Graydon Carter is exiting Vanity Fair this December it was revealed on Thursday, ending his 25-year run as editor of the Conde Nast publication.
‘I want to leave while the magazine is on top,’ Carter said in an interview with the New York Times.
‘I want to leave while it’s in vibrant shape, both in the digital realm and the print realm. And I wanted to have a third act — and I thought, time is precious.’
Carter said that after his exit he is planning to rent a home in Provence for six months on what he referred to as a ‘garden leave.’
Many quickly took to social media to comment about Carter’s departure, though there has been no word yet from his longtime foe and biggest detractor: President Donald Trump.
Another individual who spent time in the Oval Office did lament his exit however, with Monica Lewinsky tweeting: ‘one of my true heroes… will always be so grateful to GC. sorry to see him leave VF. #MakeAmericaGraydonsAgain’
Farewell: In a new interview, Graydon Carter reveals that he will exit his post as the editor-in-chief of ‘Vanity Fair’ in December
Carter also said in the interview that he had an idea as to who would replace him at the magazine, but did not get into specifics or reveal any names.
‘I want to make it really easy for the next person,’ he explained.
‘I care about this magazine. I don’t want it to go anywhere other than up.’
He did not opt to speak however about the famed Oscar party he started while at the magazine, which is held in Los Angeles every year ans had become more of an event than the actual awards ceremony.
‘I’m very uncomfortable talking about myself like this,’ said Carter.
He went on to say that he likely would not attend the event after he leaves the magazine, stating: ‘You don’t really need me there. I’m like a glorified maître d.’
Crater also downplayed his own position at the magazine, saying: ‘Editors, you know, we don’t really do anything.’
He said that he thought of stepping down earlier, but decided to stay on after President Trump won the election.
Carter first made a foe of Trump with a column for his magazine ‘Spy,’ referring to him as a ‘short-fingered vulgarian.’
Trump has appeared inside and on the cover of Vanity Fair in the past, and he and wife Melania have attended the magazine’s annual Oscar party on three occasions, most recently in 2011.
The magazine has been a harsh critic however of the President-elect during the election, with Varter personally writing a searing piece on Trump in the November issue.
In that piece he wrote about a number of things, including dining out with Trump.
‘Dinner with Trump is generally a one-sided affair. He talks so much and with such velocity that it can make your hair flutter. Whatever wife he has at the time tends to say nothing,’ wrote Carter.
The magazine editor later wrote: ‘He has touched – embraced – every third rail in American politics. He has offended (and I apologize if I’ve left some group out): African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans, Jews, Muslims, war heroes – war heroes! – families of war heroes, the disabled, women, and babies. Babies! Through word or action, Trump has promoted gun violence, bigotry, ignorance, intolerance, lying, and just about everything else that can be wrong with a society.’
Carter also detailed the night he took Trump as his guest to the 1993 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Halfway through the evening the guest next to him, the model Vendela Kirsebom, came over in tears.
‘It seems that Trump had spent his entire time with her assaying the ‘tits’ and legs of the other female guests and asking how they measured up to those of other women, including his wife,’ wrote Carter.
”’He is,’ she told me, in words that seemed familiar, ‘the most vulgar man I have ever met.”’
Kirsebom, 49, spoke about that interview during an interview with DailyMail.com back in October.
‘Everything he said was so vulgar. I couldn’t listen to his nonsense for an entire night so I asked if I could be moved,’ she said.
‘He talked about big breasts, small breasts, how one was better than the other and the differences between them.
‘His main focus was breasts and the sizes of women’s bodies. Fat women were not real women in his opinion.’
She added: ‘He basically said if you are not attractive and beautiful, then you don’t have any purpose as a woman.’
Trump has also lashed out many times in the past at Carter, attacking his magazine, his Vanity Fair Oscar party and his own restaurant, Waverly Inn.
‘Dopey Graydon Carter, who is presiding over dying @VanityFair magazine, is also presiding over dying Waverly Inn—worst food in city,’ wrote Trump on Twitter three years ago.
Carter responded by putting that quote on the top of all menus at the Waverly Inn.