Ruby Rippey-Gibney, the former San Francisco City Hall aide at the center of a 2007 scandal, published a detailed Vanity Fair essay on July 28 revealing her account of a years-long affair with Gavin Newsom when he was mayor, just as the California governor prepares for a potential 2028 presidential run.
The essay marks Rippey-Gibney’s most extensive public accounting of the relationship since she largely stayed silent for nearly two decades. In vivid detail, she describes how the affair began on July 2, 2005, when she and Newsom ended up together in a hallway at a wedding after she broke her sobriety, eventually going to The Carneros Inn.
At the time, Rippey-Gibney was married to Alex Tourk, Newsom’s close friend and campaign manager, while Newsom was in the process of divorcing Kimberly Guilfoyle, now the U.S. Ambassador to Greece. Rippey-Gibney worked as Newsom’s appointments secretary and described in the essay how she began changing her appearance and behavior as the affair developed, wearing Chanel makeup and pink patent leather heels and positioning herself to encounter Newsom throughout City Hall.
She wrote that she would scan Newsom’s calendar for openings and appear wherever he was expected, waiting for his text: “Where are you?” The encounters, she says, happened in various locations—his Russian Hill penthouse, a private room in a North Beach bar, and the W Hotel in Los Angeles.
Rippey-Gibney characterized the relationship not as love or romance, but as “intoxication”—describing it as driven by her struggle with alcohol and cocaine addiction, combined with the psychological pull of proximity to power and the feeling of being chosen. “It isn’t love. It isn’t romance. It’s intoxication,” she wrote.
The affair continued for months, with Rippey-Gibney describing moments of guilt from Newsom, including when he told her after she spilled wine on his carpet: “You know, we really can’t do this anymore. You can’t be doing this to Alex.” Yet, she says, the encounters continued. In one incident in Los Angeles, she tore buttons off his shirt during an encounter she partially blacked out for, and Newsom later texted: “Thank God the W had T-shirts.”
The relationship took a toll on her professional life. Rippey-Gibney was eventually moved to a makeshift office in a former copy room and spent most days hungover, thinking only about drinking. The affair ended only after she entered rehab in May 2006 for her substance abuse issues, following an emergency room visit for a nosebleed caused by cocaine use.
The Public Reckoning and Political Fallout
Rippey-Gibney did not confess to her husband until January 2007. In her essay, she described writing to him: “Just sex—on and off for months—with the mayor. It ended before rehab. I’m sorry.” Tourk arranged a confrontation with Newsom, and the affair soon dominated San Francisco headlines.
Newsom publicly admitted to the affair in early 2007 and apologized. The scandal threatened to derail his political career, but he went on to win re-election as mayor and later won statewide office twice—becoming California governor in 2019.
In her Vanity Fair essay, Rippey-Gibney addresses a detail from Newsom’s 2026 memoir that she says misrepresents events. Newsom wrote that he “came clean” to her husband about the affair, but Rippey-Gibney says she was the one who told Tourk. “That detail—subtle but significant—is the one that stays with me,” she wrote, noting it gave Newsom credit for transparency he did not provide.
Rippey-Gibney also revealed that Kamala Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, called her after the scandal broke to advise restraint. Harris, who is now Vice President, told her: “I wouldn’t say anything right now, Ruby. Just pause. More time will give you better perspective.” Rippey-Gibney took that advice and remained largely silent for two decades.
In the essay, Rippey-Gibney says she accepts responsibility for her choices while also acknowledging that Newsom held greater power in their working relationship. She notes that she has since remained sober, remarried, and even attended her ex-husband’s wedding after he told her, “Ruby. We are family.”
Newsom’s office responded to the essay by stating: “The Governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized nearly two decades ago when he was still mayor. In the time since, he met his wife, started a family and has focused on serving Californians. He addressed this chapter of his life, including in his memoir, and, out of respect for everyone involved, has nothing further to add.”
Sources
- New York Post — Ruby Rippey-Gibney’s Vanity Fair essay details, quotes, and timeline of the affair and its public revelation
- TMZ — Details of Rippey-Gibney’s account of how she positioned herself to encounter Newsom, Kamala Harris’s advice, and Newsom’s office response
- Los Angeles Times — 2018 interview with Rippey-Gibney about the affair’s impact on her life
- Reuters — February 2007 reporting on Newsom’s public admission and apology for the affair
