A former staffer who had an affair with Gavin Newsom over 20 years ago offered extensive details in an essay published Tuesday by Vanity Fair, taking issue with how the California governor has more recently characterized what happened.
Newsom, then the mayor of San Francisco, admitted in 2007 that he had an affair in the years prior with Ruby Rippey, his appointments secretary and the wife of his campaign manager, Alex Tourk. Rippey has not spoken much about the scandal as Newsom has risen in politics and emerged as a potential 2028 presidential contender.
In the Vanity Fair piece, Rippey criticizes Newsom’s description of the affair and its fallout in a memoir he published earlier this year. He wrote that it was the “briefest of affairs,” and recounted how he “came clean” to Tourk, a close friend.
“That detail—subtle but significant—is the one that stays with me,” Rippey wrote. “It reads—to me, at least—as a version of events that gives him credit for something I had already done.”
Newsom had filed for divorce from his wife, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, before the affair, but the relationship with his subordinate was an early political stumbling block for Newsom. Tourk resigned after confronting Newsom about it, and Newsom later held a news conference where he said, “Everything you’ve read is true and I’m deeply sorry for that.”
