Jealous rift that broke Gavin Newsom’s friendship with billionaire bestie exposed

Gov. Gavin Newsom has opened up about a bitter falling-out with his former bestie Billy Getty — son of billionaire oil heir Gordon Getty, who reportedly came to resent the would-be governor over his financial ties and exceedingly close relationship with his father.

Newsom discussed the messy friendship breakup in his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” which details his childhood, rise in politics and wine-soaked escapades as the hot-to-trot single mayor of San Francisco.

Newsom and Billy grew close after his brother, aspiring filmmaker Andrew Getty, receded into drug addiction and eventually died at his Hollywood Hills mansion, Newsom writes.

“The youngest of the Getty boys, Billy liked to recite arcane facts and figures from San Francisco’s past and was captivated by the subject of wine and its making and selling and pairing with food,” Newsom writes.

The two went into business together at the upscale Balboa Cafe and Plumpjack, the San Francisco wine shop that launched Newsom’s wine empire — with the help of Billy’s father Gordon Getty, who bankrolled the venture with a group of high-society investors.

A 1998 New York Times article described Balboa Cafe as a “glittering nexus for Gen-X San Franciscans with social and political connections” — run by the two most “eligible bachelors in town,” young Newsom and a soft-spoken, ponytailed Getty.

The two young chums were so close they went on a group vacation to Maui with Newsom’s then-girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle and Getty’s future wife Vanessa Getty.

Getty had even dated Guilfoyle prior to her relationship with Newsom. But that wasn’t the source of their bitter friendship split — rather, Newsom’s close entanglements with his father caused “resentment,” Newsom suggests in his memoir.

The pair at one point bought a “fixer-upper in Pacific Heights and planned a complete remodel with the addition of a third floor.”

According to Newsom, the two agreed he would crash there and oversee the work, while Billy “threw himself into a 5,500 square foot” penthouse renovation atop Russian Hill, asking Newsom to pitch his father on the staggeringly expensive rehab.

“I never considered the possibility that Billy and Vanessa’s reliance on me would turn into resentment,” Newsom writes.

But something changed after Getty and his wife Vanessa returned from their two-week honeymoon in Bali, according to Newsom.

Vanessa Getty demanded the freeloading Newsom leave the Pacific Heights property so they could take advantage of the hot housing market. The high-society couple then launched a “forensic audit” of Plumpjack to identify any ways Newsom could be benefiting at Billy’s expense, according to the book.

Ambushed by local reporters Phil Matier and Andrew Ross at Plumpjack Hotel in Lake Tahoe, Gordon Getty took Newsom’s side.

“I believe 100% in Gavin,” the older Getty told them. “When he is accused of wrongdoing, I’m on his side.”

Gordon Getty soon bought out his son’s stake in the business and the former besties never rekindled their friendship, Newsom writes.

The loss is “one of the great holes in my life,” Newsom writes.

Getty still resides in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood and is an active philanthropist with wife Vanessa Getty.

Last year, Vanessa Getty was sued for ramming her Porsche Taycan into a parked car, allegedly leaving a senior with brain injuries.

Getty was “apologetic at the scene,” according to the San Francisco Standard.

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