Ruby Rippey describes sexual encounter when Gavin Newsom affair began

Former Newsom staffer Ruby Rippey described her affair with then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in gross detail within a Vanity Fair essay published Tuesday.

Rippey said she had an awkward, sexually tense moment with Newsom outside a bathroom at a July 2005 wedding.

“My boss and I end up in the narrow hallway outside the bathroom at the same time. We wait, across from each other. The space is tight. The silence stretches.

“He slips his hands into his tan trouser pockets and smiles—his usual shy, aw-shucks smile. I say nothing. I hold his gaze longer than I should,” she wrote.

“The air changes.”

One thing led to another, and Newsom had his toes in the same hot tub as Rippey. At the time, Rippey was married to Newsom’s close friend and top aide, Alex Tourk. Newsom had yet to finalize his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle.

As her husband left, Rippey got into a car with Newsom. He massaged her feet as his town car drove them to a hotel. She recalled that as her last memory before waking up in bed alongside Newsom.

“I wake the next morning beside him, still dressed. I am cold, almost shivering, and my dress—the one my mother warned me not to wear—is soaked from the waist down. I had passed out. I had also wet the bed,” she said.

Rippey then said she left to go back to her husband. The encounter began their affair, which didn’t end until Rippey entered rehab for drugs in May 2006.

She confessed to her husband in mid-January, and Tourk set up a meeting with Newsom later that month.

Their affair, when revealed in February 2007, shook the political earth in San Francisco. Newsom was dating Jennifer Siebel Newsom, now the first partner, at the time of the announcement.

Newsom’s office said he has nothing further to add to the essay.

“The governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized for his conduct nearly two decades ago when he was still mayor.

“In the time since, he met his wife, started a family and has focused on serving Californians,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said.

“He addressed this chapter of his life, including in his memoir, and out of respect for everyone involved, does not have anything further to add.”

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