Jeff Zucker seen for the first time in Manhattan picking up pizza after his resignation

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. 

The embattled media executive made a quick foray into town Friday afternoon to pick up a pizza before getting picked up by a car and returning straight home

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 has not made any public appearances or comments on the scandal since his resignation announcement on February 2

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, 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 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 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. 

Zucker was later seen again walking around the city 

That Friday evening, Allison Gollust was also spotted at her Upper East Side apartment building

Zucker resigned two months after the scandal involving CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, which brought to light his relationship with fellow executive Allison Gollust (right in 2011) – apparently an ‘open secret’ at the network

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 tot he contrary as ‘sexist’ and ‘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 $18million 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.   

Zucker and Gollust, 49, claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic but others say it far predates COVID. They are pictured above at the Democratic Party Presidential Debate in 2019 

Sources have pointed out that the pair were often seen out in public together – even as Gollust continued to deny they were in a relationship

Zucker with his ex-wife Caryn in 2011 (left) and Gollust with her ex-husband Billy Hult (right) in 2008. The pair have known each other and worked together for 20 years, starting at ABC, and media sources say their affair was an ‘open secret’ 

Zucker’s outing on Friday comes as the fallout over his departure and Cuomo’s apparent involvement continues to rattle the network. 

CNN’s top stars Kaitlan Collins, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Jim Acosta and Alisyn Camerota are all furious that their beloved leader has been cast out. 

Staffers have questioned why Zucker was forced out over the affair, which was an open-secret for years. 

There was speculation from media insiders that the AT&T deal may have been one of the reasons he left. 

Last week some of CNN’s most well-known anchors grilled Kilar over the decision in a virtual meeting.

Richard Quest, host of the daily show Quest Means Business on CNN International, told Kilar on Monday: ‘There was the possibility of a more imaginative result that would’ve allowed you to keep the captain, instead of throwing the captain overboard while the ship is about to go through icebergs.’

Meanwhile, hosts Don Lemon and Oliver Darcy questioned Kilar, 50, on whether former host Chris Cuomo would get a severance package from CNN.

‘Did you think about what message it sends to the journalists in the company and also to the larger public that someone can be found to break with those journalistic standards and then get paid handsomely for it,’ Lemon reportedly asked Kilar.

Zucker’s indiscretion was revealed during an ongoing internal investigation into former CNN host Chris Cuomo, right, who was fired in December after it was revealed he helped coordinate the media strategy of his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after he was accused of sexual harassment by a report from New York’s Attorney General 

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was spotted Sunday afternoon at a ritzy hotel in Palm Beach, Florida

The WarnerMedia CEO declined to answer questions about Cuomo’s reported $9million severance package, though Zucker had previously said that Cuomo wouldn’t get one.    

AT&T, CNN’s parent company, is said to be in negotiations to reach a deal that would see the fired anchor receive half of the $18million he had been vying for before  Zucker’s unexpected resignation, as first reported by the New York Post. 

The fired CNN anchor, who was hoping to secure a lump sum payout following his departure last year, has reportedly been told to set his sights lower, with him unlikely to receive anything more than around $9million from the cable news network. 

During Monday’s meeting Kilar also declined to say whether he had requested Zucker’s ‘resignation,’ according to Washington Post reporter Jeremy Barr. 

There is also speculation growing over whether Zucker was forced out at CNN over his open-secret affair because the scandal of it and his ongoing war with Cuomo could have threatened AT&T’s $43billion deal with Discovery. 

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was grilled by CNN’s New York-based anchors during a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss the ouster of CNN president Jeff Zucker

AT&T bought WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) in 2018 for $84billion. It was a disastrous deal that the telecoms giant has been trying to unwind for years. 

It, finally, is now in the finalizing stage of a $43billion sale of WarnerMedia to Discovery. 

According to Puck media reporter Dylan Byers, Zucker and Gollust were due to take on senior roles within the new company, under the leadership of Discovery CEO David Zaslav. 

Byers writes that it is likely Stankey insisted on Zucker’s departure after learning of it. By getting rid of Cuomo, too, AT&T does not have to pay Chris Cuomo the $18million he claims he is entitled to.