Gavin Newsom Admits He 'Gave Only a Little of Myself' to Ex-Wife Kimberly Guilfoyle as He Recalls Their Marital Demise

In his forthcoming memoir, Young Man in a Hurry, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) admitted he wasn't fully invested in his marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle and has one major regret about it.

The 58-year-old presidential hopeful recounted his four-year marriage to the 56-year-old former Fox News fixture and admitted he wasn't all in. Instead of regretting his emotional unavailability, he wished he had given more to his dying mother.

Newsom described a marriage between two hyper-ambitious "climbers" laser-focused on their careers as a "devil's bargain," and said the distance between them was a "breach" that eventually widened into an unrepairable "chasm."

The couple wed in a swanky ceremony at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco in 2001. At the time, they were dubbed "the new Kennedys."

But their careers drew them apart when Newsom, who was sworn in as Mayor of the City by the Bay in 2004, stayed on the West Coast and Guilfoyle was headed east.

“Three days after I had been sworn in as mayor, Kimberly flew to New York to start a new job as a host for Court TV,” Newsom wrote. “She was on a career path that would take her to Fox News and into circles of right-wing politics that could not have contrasted more with the world in which we were raised.”

Newsom knew their marriage was doomed after his groundbreaking allowance of same-s-- marriage in San Francisco.

“I saw something in those marriages that I did not see in my own,” he wrote.

His sister, Hilary, was quoted in the book describing Guilfoyle as “smart, quite smart, but not my type of gal,” adding that “her need for attention and love could not be met.”

“She was a little over-the-top. Overdone style. She was never not put together, but understatement was not one of her attributes,” Newsom’s sister said. “She needed to command a room. She needed to own a room. All eyes on her.”

Hilary reportedly told him she saw "adoration" from Kimberly toward him, but "less from you to her".

Gavin said his mother, Tessa, “put on a good smile” when they got married, but noted she was concerned he had brought a "passivity" into the relationship.

"My mother was of the mind that the marriage between Kimberly and me would not last, but she chose to hide those feelings from me," he recalled.

Just one day before she ended her life through doctor-assisted suicide in 2002 after battling b----- cancer, Tessa reportedly scolded Kimberly about the state of their marriage, leaving the current ambassador of the United States to Greece in tears.

The California governor, who has since become one of President Donald Trump's most beloved and lauded online trolls, said he has one regret about his first marriage.

"I gave only a little of myself to Kimberly. Instead of regretting this, I kept wishing I could have given a lot more to my dying mother," he penned. “The distance between Kimberly and me became a breach, and the breach widened into a chasm that could not be repaired."

The couple divorced in January 2005 and parted “about as amicably as two people could,” he wrote.

Gavin married actress and producer Jennifer Siebel in 2008.

In the years since their split, Kimberly became a MAGA fixture and the ex-fiancée of Donald Trump Jr.

Reports in 2025 indicated she still held a form of respect for her ex-husband, suggesting she helped connect him with right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and the late Charlie Kirk for his podcast.