A former aide to California Gov. Gavin Newsom is publicly recounting her relationship with the future governor in a newly published first-person essay, reflecting on the affair, her struggles with addiction, and the lasting impact the relationship had on her life and marriage.
Ruby Rippey, who served as Newsom’s Appointments Secretary, shared her account in an essay published by Vanity Fair on Tuesday. The publication comes as Newsom is widely viewed as considering a potential presidential campaign.
At the time of the relationship in 2005, Rippey was married to Alex Tourk, one of Newsom’s close friends who served as the San Francisco mayor’s chief of staff from 2004 to 2006.
Newsom himself was also in the middle of divorce proceedings from his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who now serves as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Greece.
The affair remained private until 2007, when Tourk resigned as Newsom’s re-election campaign manager after Rippey confessed the relationship to him.
Following the revelation, Newsom publicly acknowledged the affair while speaking with reporters at San Francisco City Hall.
“Everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that,” Newsom said at the time.
Although Rippey does not identify Newsom by name in her essay, she refers to him as the “mayor of San Francisco,” describing him as someone “often described as Kennedy-esque.”
Much of Rippey’s essay focuses on her personal battle with alcoholism and substance abuse before, during, and after the affair.
She writes that she experienced periods of sobriety before returning to drinking during the year the relationship occurred. She also says she began using cocaine during that period.
Reflecting on the affair itself, Rippey wrote that it was driven less by romance than by the attraction of proximity to political power.
“We meet and we drink,” she wrote. “There is sex, but it isn’t the point. The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen, to feeling newly visible — no longer muted by pregnancy, by new motherhood, by the strain of white-knuckling long stretches of sobriety. It isn’t love. It isn’t romance. It’s intoxication.”
According to Rippey, her father later offered to pay for treatment, leading her to enter a rehabilitation facility in Arizona.
While in treatment, she resigned from her position and wrote a letter ending the relationship.
After returning home, Rippey said she decided she could no longer keep the affair hidden from her husband.
She recalled sending Tourk an email admitting to the relationship.
“Just sex—on and off for months—with the mayor. It ended before rehab. I’m sorry,” she wrote.
Throughout the essay, Rippey places significant responsibility on herself, writing openly about the guilt she continues to carry over the damage done to her marriage.
At the same time, she reflects on how her perspective evolved during the #MeToo movement.
While emphasizing that she was not coerced, Rippey wrote that she came to view the imbalance of power differently over time.
“Power does not need to coerce,” she wrote. “It only needs to exist. The responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it. That didn’t happen. But I didn’t stumble into the space left open—I saw a possibility and went for it. Both things are true: I am responsible for what I did. Power does not distribute consequences evenly.”
Newsom’s office responded to the essay Tuesday with a statement referencing the governor’s earlier public apology.
“The governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized for his conduct nearly two decades ago when he was still mayor,” the statement said.
The governor’s office added that Newsom has since met his wife, started a family, and focused on serving Californians. The statement also noted that he previously addressed the episode in his memoir and, out of respect for everyone involved, has nothing further to add.
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