Gavin Newsom's Ex-Lover Says Kamala Harris Advised Her to Remain Silent About Their Tryst Post-Scandal

In a revealing essay published in Vanity Fair on Tuesday, July 28, Ruby Rippey, the former appointments secretary for Gavin Newsom, broke her 20-year silence regarding their 2005 affair.

She revealed that former Vice President Kamala Harris — who was the San Francisco District Attorney at the time — personally called her after the scandal broke in 2007 and advised her to remain silent.

According to Rippey’s essay, she was broke, unemployed and heavily considering a lucrative memoir offer to tell her story when Harris reached out.

Upon hearing that people were pressuring Rippey to speak out publicly, Harris allegedly advised her, "I wouldn't say anything right now, Ruby. Just pause. More time will give you better perspective."

Rippey noted in the essay that she welcomed the guidance, calling it "the best advice" she received during that chaotic period.

She explained that because she was newly sober and dealing with the immediate wreckage of her marriage and career, the advice helped her decide to stay silent and pass on the book deals at the time.

The tryst took place in 2005, when Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco. Newsom was legally single and newly separated from his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, when the affair occurred.

“There is s--, but it isn’t the point,” she wrote. “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.”

The situation sparked a massive political scandal when it went public in 2007 because Rippey was married to Alex Tourk, who was Newsom’s deputy chief of staff and campaign manager. Tourk immediately resigned upon learning of the affair.

“You know, we really can’t do this anymore. You can’t be doing this to Alex,” Newsom told Rippey, who said that was the moment the affair ended, though they did have future encounters until Rippey ended up in rehab for cocaine abuse.

“Just s-- — on and off for months — with the mayor,” she wrote to her husband in 2007. “It ended before rehab. I’m sorry.”

Rippey's decision to finally publish her account in Vanity Fair comes at a time when both Newsom and Harris are viewed as top potential contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

Newsom briefly addressed the affair in his memoir Young Man In a Hurry, calling it “the stupidest and also briefest of affairs” and “the worst betrayal” of his life. He wrote that Rippey admitted to the affair in rehab and that he “came clean” to his sister and to Rippey’s husband.

A rep for Newsom told TMZ, "The Governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized 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."

The rep added that Newsom "addressed this chapter of his life, including in his memoir, and, out of respect for everyone involved, has nothing further to add."