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Ruby Rippey, the woman whose affair with then-Mayor Gavin Newsom sparked a 2007 California political scandal, detailed the encounter step-by-step in a piece published Tuesday in Vanity Fair, while revealing the role former Vice President Kamala Harris played in advising her afterward.
Rippey, who was married to Newsom’s campaign manager at the time, Alex Tourk, and who served as the mayor’s appointments secretary, disclosed that Harris, who, at the time was the San Francisco District Attorney, privately advised Rippey to “pause” and refrain from public comment or taking a book deal as the scandal broke.
“She listens, then says simply: ‘I wouldn’t say anything right now, Ruby. Just pause. More time will give you better perspective,’” Rippey claims Harris told her after the affair became public.
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Ruby Rippey details her affair with then-Mayor Gavin Newsom step-by-step in “Vanity Fair,” revealing Kamala Harris privately advised her to stay silent. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The essay chronicles Rippey’s battle with alcoholism, the eventual breakdown in her marriage and her journey to sobriety, while questioning how Newsom’s team framed the affair in his memoir.
Rippey notes that Newsom’s book wrongly claims he was the one who “came clean” to her husband, a detail she says gives him credit for a confession she had already made. When she asked a Newsom advisor if the governor “tells the truth” in the book, he responded, “Well, we all remember things differently, don’t we, Ruby?”
Rippey described beginning the affair while working at City Hall, detailing encounters that included sitting in a hot tub together, spending nights in hotel rooms, and visiting his Russian Hill penthouse.
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Then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference at City Hall on Feb. 1, 2007, in San Francisco, where he publicly apologized for an extramarital affair involving the wife of a former staffer. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“The next clear memory is getting into the back of my boss’s chauffeured town car, heading to The Carneros Inn,” Rippey wrote, later adding, “I stretch my legs across the center console and let my heels fall off. He is in the front seat. He takes one of my feet and begins to massage it, the gesture half-hidden inside the loud car.”
Rippey described waking up beside Newsom the next morning, noting that while the encounters continued for months, they were fueled by addiction and status: “We meet and we drink. 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.”
One comment she claims Newsom made came after the birth of her first child, when they met at a Mexican restaurant. He told her, “Hey — you look really good … You’ve lost all your pregnancy weight.”
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Rippey notes that while she entered into the affair willingly, years later she realized the power imbalance may have played a role in the ordeal, adding that “power does not need to coerce. It only needs to exist.”
After she decided to come clean to her husband in an email while he was still working for Newsom, Tourk confronted the mayor and immediately resigned. The affair erupted publicly shortly after, prompting Newsom to admit to the affair during a 2007 news conference and subsequently announce he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse.
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Digital reached out to Newsom’s team and Harris’ team for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
