Nearly 20 years after a shocking affair nearly derailed Gavin Newsom’s political career, the alleged mistress involved in the affair has come forward with a shocking bombshell that could upend Newsom’s aspirations of running for president in 2028.
Ruby Rippey-Gibne, a former San Francisco City Hall aide, will tell her side of the story for the first time in an upcoming Vanity Fair piece involving Newsom, according to The California Post.
While initial details about the piece’s contents are unclear, a source familiar with the matter said Rippey-Gibney intends to recount her perspective on the 2007 San Francisco political scandal.
NYP: Ruby Rippey-Gibney — woman who had affair with Gavin Newsom — penning bombshell story for Vanity Fair
Ruby Rippey-Gibney — the former San Francisco City Hall aide whose affair with Governor Gavin Newsom nearly upended his political career — will tell her side of the story…
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 15, 2026
Newsom acknowledged the affair in early 2007, after his longtime political adviser and former campaign manager, Alex Tourk, discovered the then-mayor had engaged in a sexual relationship with his wife Rippey-Gibney, who at the time worked as Newsom’s appointments secretary at City Hall.
Tourk resigned after confronting Newsom, and the mayor held a news conference apologizing publicly and describing the affair as a “personal lapse of judgment.”
“I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that,” Newsom said.
It remains one of the most embarrassing moments in then-mayor of San Francisco Newsom’s life and career.
The scandal dominated headlines across the country not only because Rippey-Gibney — who has since remarried — was married to one of Newsom’s closest political allies, but also because she worked directly for the mayor, raising questions about the power hierarchy of a relationship between an elected official and a subordinate employee.
Shortly after the fallout mounted, Newsom announced he was giving up alcohol and said he would seek professional help.
“My problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment,” he said at the time.
“Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life.”
But during his 2018 campaign for governor, Newsom told The Sacramento Bee those reports of seeking professional help for his alcohol problem were untrue.
Newsom said he never checked into rehab. Instead, he said he sought counseling from Delancey Street Foundation president Mimi Silbert, stopped drinking for a period of time, and later resumed consuming alcohol.
“No, there’s no rehab. I just stopped,” Newsom told the newspaper.
“There was no treatment, no nothing related to any of that stuff. I stopped because I thought it was a good thing to stop.”
Prior to the affair, Newsom had been married to prosecutor and future Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle from 2001 until early 2006, roughly a year before the affair became public.
The couple separated in 2004, and Newsom recently detailed his romantic escapades as a single mayor of San Francisco in his recently released memoir.
The scandal also tested Newsom’s relationship with his future wife, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
The two began dating in late 2006, just months before his affair with Rippey-Gibney became public. Siebel Newsom ultimately stood by him, and the couple married in 2008.
However, shortly after the scandal erupted, Siebel Newsom had harsh words.
“I shouldn’t say this, but there are two sides to every story,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “If people did research into the scandal … the woman is the culprit.”
Her comments drew widespread criticism at the time, with observers arguing she unfairly shifted blame onto Rippey-Gibney despite the power imbalance between a mayor and one of his employees.
Newsom ultimately survived the scandal and won reelection as mayor later in 2007, eventually becoming governor, with rumors of a planned 2028 run also on the horizon.
Since the scandal, Rippey-Gibney has largely avoided speaking publicly about the affair, but she briefly resurfaced during Newsom’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
According to The Post, she once wrote on Facebook that while she supported the #MeToo movement, she did not believe her relationship with Newsom belonged in that category because she considered herself a consenting adult despite working for him.
“Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a free-thinking, 33-year-old adult married woman & mother,” she wrote, adding that she was struggling with alcoholism and self-destructive behavior during that period of her life.
Her upcoming Vanity Fair essay appears poised to become her most extensive public account yet.
Newsom has generally declined to revisit the specifics of the affair beyond accepting responsibility.
His office did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.