Gavin Newsom responds after former mistress details affair in explosive tell-all essay
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Justin Sullivan
Gavin Newsom has spoken out after his former mistress, Ruby Rippey, who worked as his secretary while he was San Francisco mayor, wrote a 'tell all' titled: 'How I Blew Up - Then Rebuilt My Life.
The piece, published in Vanity Fair earlier today (July 28), wrote about how the affair between herself and California governor Newson began in 2005, while she was married to Newsom’s aide, Alex Tourk.
"I had been sleeping with his boss, who was also mine, and the mayor of San Francisco," she began the essay.
Newsom, 58, publicly apologized for the affair in a press conference in 2007, and also spoke about it in his memoir which was released earlier this year. Now, he's spoken out once again, via his office.
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“The governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized for his conduct 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,” his office said.
“He addressed this chapter of his life, including in his memoir, and out of respect for everyone involved, does not have anything further to add.”
In the article, Rippey revealed that she had broken her sobriety at a wedding they both attended in 2005, later finding herself in a hallway with Newsom.
The night progressed from there, as they found themselves dipping their feet in a hot tub together. She disclosed that her husband left 'irritated' that she wanted to continue the party, while he drove their son home.
She then describes going to The Carneros Inn with the former San Fransisco mayor in a chauffeured car, in which he gave her a foot massage.
Everything from then on was a blur, until she describes 'waking up beside him the next morning still dressed,' also admitting to 'wetting the bed'.
In a later meeting she details having intercourse with Newsom, adding: "It isn’t love. It isn’t romance. It’s intoxication."
Writing in a chapter 'a real girls' girl,' Rippey revealed that Kamala Harris called her when the scandal broke in 2007, detailing how she 'knew her from the Brown administration'.
Here, she alleged that the former Vice President advised her to 'not say anything right now', with Rippey saying it was 'the best advice she'd received.
Towards the end of the piece, Rippey skips to 2026, when Newsom's memoir was released, and the fact he described it as 'the briefest of affairs' and that he was the one to 'come clean' to her husband.
"It reads—to me, at least—as a version of events that gives him credit for something I had already done," she claims.
Then, Rippey, who is now 20 years sober, says the pain of 'what I did to Alex' has stayed with her for two decades.
Following the public exposure, the couple, divorced. At the time of the affair, Newsom had not finalized his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle.