Ex-aide Ruby Rippey disputes Gavin Newsom's characterization of affair as 'briefest,' calls it intoxication with power

Topline

Ruby Rippey, the former aide to then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who had an affair with him while she was married to one of his top staffers, has accused Newsom of downplaying the seriousness of their relationship. In a new essay for Vanity Fair published Tuesday, she also revealed that Kamala Harris gave her some of the best advice she received at the time.

Key Facts

• Ruby Rippey, speaking publicly for the first time about her affair with Newsom, disputed his characterization of their relationship as "the stupidest and also briefest of affairs"—a description he offered in his new memoir published earlier this year.

• Recounting the relationship, which occurred in late 2005, Rippey wrote: "We meet and we drink. There is sex, but it isn't the point. The point is proximity—to power, to being chosen… it isn't love. It isn't romance. It's intoxication."

• For Newsom, she wrote, the relationship "is a footnote in a longer arc of ascent," but for her, "it is the fracture that split my life into before and after."

• Rippey also challenged Newsom's claim that "he was the one who 'came clean' to" her then-husband. She wrote that this "reads—to me, at least—as a version of events that gives him credit for something I had already done. Technically defensible, perhaps, but one that leaves the unmistakable impression that he, not I, was the one who told Alex the truth."

• Rippey said the "best advice" she received at the time came from then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, whom she knew from working in former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr.'s administration. Harris advised her not to speak publicly about the affair after a publisher offered her an advance for a memoir.

Tangent

Harris reportedly dated Brown in the 1990s after his separation from his wife and while he was state assembly speaker and she was assistant district attorney. Critics of Harris have claimed she used the relationship to boost her career. Brown acknowledged they dated and that he helped her career, along with those of other California Democrats, in a 2019 San Francisco Chronicle column titled, "Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?" Harris has sought to distance herself from Brown, describing him as an "albatross hanging around my neck… let's please move on" in a 2003 interview with SF Weekly, when she was running for San Francisco district attorney.

Crucial Quote

A spokesperson for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, told multiple outlets in response to Rippey's essay:

"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. 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."

What to Watch For

Newsom and Harris are both considered possible candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Harris said in April she "might" run and is "thinking about it." Newsom has also acknowledged he is considering it, but said earlier this month, "fate will determine that." He said in March he would reassess a potential run after this year's midterm elections.

Key Background

Rippey, marking 20 years of sobriety, detailed how the affair ruined her marriage but ultimately forced her into rehab for her alcoholism. Newsom admitted the affair publicly after Rippey's then-husband, Newsom's campaign manager and friend Alex Tourk, confronted Newsom shortly after Rippey—then Newsom's appointments secretary—confessed to the affair.

Newsom, who was in the middle of a divorce from his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at the time, held a press conference in which he discussed the affair, telling reporters: "Everything you've heard and read is true… I've hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, and that is something I have to live with."

Rippey, who was 33 at the time, wrote that she was too drunk to remember some of her encounters with Newsom, then 38, but that they were consensual and typically initiated by her. She said the Me Too movement co-opted her story and made her out to be a victim, but it made her realize that although she was not coerced, there was a power dynamic at play.