Former Aide Breaks Silence About Affair With Gavin Newsom: Report

SACRAMENTO, CA — More than 20 years after an extramarital affair rocked the Bay Area's political scene, a former aide is opening up about her widely publicized tryst with then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Her explosive essay in Vanity Fair is putting the controversy back in the spotlight as Newsom is widely viewed as a 2028 presidential contender.

Ruby Rippey, who was Newsom's appointments secretary, shared her account of what happened during her relationship with the governor in a first-person essay published Tuesday by Vanity Fair. Newsom has long since admitted to the relationship, which occurred between his marriages.

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Rippey described her monthslong affair as something she wasn't coerced into but said the "power" Newsom held as mayor of San Francisco lured her into the clandestine relationship while she was married to his good friend and campaign manager. In the essay, Rippey admits to having sex with Newsom but downplayed the influence it had on her reason for engaging in the affair with Newsom at the time.

"I always go to him — his penthouse in Russian Hill, a private back room at a North Beach bar, the W Hotel in Los Angeles," Rippey wrote.

"We meet and we drink. There is sex, but it isn't the point," she continued. "The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."

Rippey has rarely spoken publicly about her relationship with Newsom, who in 2007 acknowledged the affair during a press conference, at which time Newsom confessed, "Everything you've heard and read is true."

Newsom admitted to the affair with Rippey, who was the wife of Alex Tourk, his re-election campaign manager and previously his deputy chief of staff.

Rippey did not identify Newsom specifically in her first-person essay, only describing the person she engaged in an affair with as the mayor of San Francisco and a man "often described as Kennedy-esque," though the Vanity Fair article does name Newsom once in the summary.

In January 2005, Newsom announced his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former San Francisco prosecutor who is now President Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece following her temporary engagement to Donald Trump, Jr.

At the time of the affair, Newsom was single, but the affair roiled City Hall and raised questions about Newsom's affair with staffer while serving as mayor.

The publication of Rippey's essay comes amid Newsom's final year as California governor and as he gears up for a possible campaign for president. Newsom launched Campaign for Democracy in March 2023, which has been widely speculated to serve as a platform for him to accept donations nationwide and make him a contender in the 2028 presidential election.

Rippey said following the affair, her life spiraled as she drank heavily and used cocaine.

Rippey and Tourk have since divorced and share an adult son together, but are now friends after many years of distance, she wrote in the essay. She is now remarried and has an 11-year-old son with her second husband, according to Vanity Fair.