Ruby Rippey-Gibney — the previous San Francisco Metropolis Corridor aide whose affair with Gov. Gavin Newsom practically upended his political profession — will inform her aspect of the story for the primary time in an upcoming Self-importance Honest piece, The Put up has discovered.
Particulars of the piece stay unclear, however a supply conversant in the matter stated Rippey-Gibney intends to recount her perspective on the affair that rocked San Francisco politics in 2007 and has remained one of the embarrassing moments in Newsom’s life and profession.
The story comes as Newsom is extensively anticipated to launch a 2028 presidential marketing campaign after terming out of the governor’s workplace subsequent yr.
Rippey-Gibney didn’t reply to The Put up’s requests for remark.
Newsom acknowledged the affair in early 2007, after his longtime political adviser and former marketing campaign supervisor Alex Tourk found the mayor had engaged in a sexual relationship along with his spouse, who on the time labored as Newsom’s appointments secretary at Metropolis Corridor.
Tourk resigned after confronting Newsom, and the mayor held a information convention apologizing publicly and describing the affair as a “private lapse of judgment.”
“I need to make it clear that every part you’ve heard and skim is true, and I’m deeply sorry about that,” Newsom stated.
The governor’s workplace and Self-importance Honest didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark about Rippey-Gibnery’s upcoming piece.
The scandal dominated headlines throughout the nation not solely as a result of Rippey-Gibney — who has since remarried — was married to one in every of Newsom’s closest political allies, but additionally as a result of she labored straight for the mayor, elevating questions in regards to the energy dynamics of a relationship between an elected official and a subordinate worker.
Because the fallout mounted, Newsom introduced he was giving up alcohol and stated he would search skilled assist.
“My issues with alcohol usually are not an excuse for my private lapses in judgment,” he stated on the time.
“Upon reflection with family and friends this weekend, I’ve come to the conclusion that I might be a greater individual with out alcohol in my life.”
Information organizations extensively reported that Newsom had entered an alcohol rehabilitation program. However throughout his 2018 marketing campaign for governor, he informed The Sacramento Bee these reviews had been inaccurate.
Newsom stated he by no means checked into rehab. As a substitute, he stated he sought counseling from Delancey Avenue Basis president Mimi Silbert, stopped consuming for a time period and later resumed consuming alcohol.
“No, there’s no rehab. I simply stopped,” Newsom informed the newspaper. “There was no therapy, no nothing associated to any of that stuff. I finished as a result of I assumed it was a great factor to cease.”
He added that the scandal completely modified him.
“Generally individuals make errors of their lives and also you then work exhausting by no means to make them once more, since you study from them,” Newsom stated.
“I prefer to assume I’m a greater individual, and I prefer to assume that lots of people have made errors, we simply don’t examine them.”
Newsom had been married to prosecutor and future Fox Information persona Kimberly Guilfoyle from 2001 till early 2006, roughly a yr earlier than the affair grew to become public. The couple separated in 2004. Newsom detailed his romantic escapades as a single mayor of San Francisco in his just lately launched memoir.
Regardless of predictions that the scandal would destroy his political future, Newsom survived and received reelection as mayor later that yr. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2010 and governor in 2018, changing into one of many Democratic Social gathering’s highest-profile figures.
The scandal additionally examined Newsom’s fledgling relationship along with his future spouse, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The 2 started relationship in late 2006, simply months earlier than the affair grew to become public. Siebel Newsom in the end stood by him, and the couple married in 2008.
However shortly after the scandal erupted, Siebel Newsom had harsh phrases.
“I shouldn’t say this, however there are two sides to each story,” Newsom informed the San Francisco Chronicle. “If individuals did analysis into the scandal … the girl is the offender.”
Siebel Newsom would apologize shortly after that story was revealed.
The feedback drew criticism from some observers, who argued they unfairly shifted blame onto Rippey-Gibney regardless of the facility imbalance between a mayor and one in every of his workers.
Rippey-Gibney has largely averted talking publicly in regards to the affair, however she briefly resurfaced throughout Newsom’s first gubernatorial marketing campaign in 2018.
She wrote on Fb that whereas she supported the #MeToo motion, she didn’t consider her relationship with Newsom belonged in that class as a result of she thought-about herself a consenting grownup regardless of working for him.
“Sure, I used to be a subordinate, however I used to be additionally a free-thinking, 33-year-old grownup married girl & mom,” she wrote, including that she was battling alcoholism and self-destructive conduct throughout that interval of her life.
Her upcoming Self-importance Honest essay seems poised to develop into her most intensive public account but.
For his half, Newsom has usually declined to revisit the specifics of the affair past accepting duty. The governor’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
