'It Was Just Sex': Gavin Newsom’s Former Mistress Drops Bombshell Details of Secret Affair in Brutal Tell-All

The long-simmering sex scandal surrounding California Governor Gavin Newsom has erupted anew. His former mistress, Ruby Rippey, has penned a blistering, unsparing essay for Vanity Fair, spilling raw details of their wild fling—from booze-fueled hot tub sessions to the moment she confessed to her husband that "it was just sex."

Back in the early 2000s, Rippey worked as an appointment secretary for Newsom while he served as Mayor of San Francisco. At the time, she was married to Newsom’s close friend and campaign manager, Alex Tourk, while Newsom was finalizing his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle (now the U.S. Ambassador to Greece).

From Flirty Compliments to Blackout Nights

Rippey joined Newsom’s team alongside her husband in 2003. Before long, the mayor moved her desk closer to his office, and she began dressing in more head-turning attire: "Chanel, pink patent-leather shoes, pencil skirts... It’s hard to recognize myself in that image, but back then I felt important."

The affair turned physical on July 2, 2005, at a local wedding. Rippey, a recovering alcoholic, relapsed that night after drinking heavily. In a narrow hallway near the restrooms, she recalls that "the air shifted" between her and the mayor.

What followed was a late-night dip in a hot tub—while her husband was back home taking care of their one-year-old son—and a ride in the mayor’s official car, where Newsom gave her a foot massage. "I woke up the next morning shivering and wet below the waist—I had blacked out and wet the bed while Newsom slept beside me," Rippey brutally admits. Days later, the mayor handed her back a gold bracelet she had left behind in the hotel room.

Cocaine Benders and Torn Buttons

Their clandestine meetings dragged on for months. During a trip to Los Angeles, after drinking heavily at a hotel bar, Rippey suffered another blackout. She woke up the next morning next to Newsom to find the floor littered with torn buttons.

"Thank God the hotel sells t-shirts," Newsom texted her later, after she had ripped the buttons clean off his shirt in a drunken frenzy.

The romance finally collapsed when Rippey’s addiction spiral reached a breaking point, landing her in the hospital with an uncontrollable nosebleed brought on by heavy cocaine use. Her family sent her straight to rehab, while her sister barred Newsom from coming anywhere near her.

In early 2007, Rippey came clean to her husband: "Just sex—for months—with the mayor. It ended before rehab. I’m sorry." The confession triggered a massive political firestorm, forcing Newsom to hold a tearful press conference acknowledging the affair.

Setting the Record Straight: Kamala Harris & The First Lady

In her essay, Rippey also took direct aim at high-profile political figures:

• Kamala Harris’s Role: Then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris personally called Rippey, advising her to lay low and stay silent to "keep her distance" from the press.

• Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Cruelty: Newsom’s now-wife publicly branded Rippey a "bad apple" in 2007, claiming she was just a "drunk woman who showed up at his door."

• Memoir Falsehoods: Rippey flatly debunked Newsom’s claim in his autobiography that he was the one who confessed to her husband. "I told Alex the truth, not him," she wrote.

In response to the tell-all, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office released a brief statement, maintaining that he publicly apologized for his conduct two decades ago, learned his lesson, built a family, and has no intention of revisiting the matter.