{"id":507,"date":"2026-07-28T19:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=507"},"modified":"2026-07-28T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T19:43:09","slug":"ex-aide-who-had-affair-with-newsom-reflects-on-power-imbalance-in-new-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=507","title":{"rendered":"Ex-aide who had affair with Newsom reflects on power imbalance in new essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In an essay for Vanity Fair published Tuesday, a former aide to Gavin Newsom reflected on the affair she had with him in the early 2000s when he was mayor of San Francisco \u2014 and on the inherent imbalance of power that shaped both the relationship and its fallout.<\/p>\n

Read more MaddowBlog<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPower does not need to coerce. It only needs to exist,\u201d Ruby Rippey wrote. \u201cThe responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it. That didn\u2019t happen. But I didn\u2019t stumble into the space left open\u2014I saw a possibility and went for it. Both things are true: I am responsible for what I did. Power does not distribute consequences evenly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rippey, who worked for Newsom initially as a deputy campaign finance director and then as his commission secretary after he took office in 2004, wrote about her alcohol addiction, her relationship with Newsom while she was married to Newsom\u2019s then-deputy chief of staff Alex Tourk and what happened after the news of the affair became public in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly everyone seemed to know except the one person who most needed to know: my husband,\u201d Rippey wrote. \u201cI had been\u00a0sleeping with his boss, who was also mine, and the\u00a0mayor of San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rippey said the affair with Newsom began after a colleague\u2019s wedding in July 2005 in Napa Valley. (Newsom, now governor of California, had filed for divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle in January 2005.)<\/p>\n

\n

It isn\u2019t love. It isn\u2019t romance. It\u2019s intoxication. The text message is a hit. The glance across the hallway, a hit. The risk floods my bloodstream. I walk down the corridors of City Hall\u2014my nude stilettos striking the marble floor. He looks at me, his gaze deliberate, newly curious. It feels like oxygen.<\/p>\n

Read more How Trump\u2019s new tariff push is using a good idea in the worst way<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t stop to consider the consequences\u2014not for Alex, not for myself, not for the life I am building. I am responding to the feeling. His attention lands like a high, and I follow it with a single-minded devotion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The two continued a sexual relationship in places such as Newsom\u2019s penthouse in Russian Hill and the W Hotel in Los Angeles, until she eventually entered rehab and confessed to her husband. The news became public in February 2007 when Newsom admitted to the affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make it clear that everything you\u2019ve heard and read is true, and I\u2019m deeply sorry about that,\u201d Newsom said at the time. \u201cI\u2019ve hurt someone I care deeply about,\u201d adding that it \u201cis something I have to live with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom declined to comment on the essay to MS NOW.<\/p>\n

Rippey said\u00a0former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the district attorney at the time, advised her not to speak publicly. \u201cIt turns out to be the best advice I receive,\u201d Rippey wrote. \u201cI am newly sober and still inside the wreckage\u2014unable to make sense of anything, let alone speak clearly about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more House GOP memo shows party\u2019s \u2018communist\u2019 scare tactics are not working<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruby Rippey discusses her substance abuse, the extramarital affair with her then-boss in the mid-aughts and the public blowback to its revelation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-aide who had affair with Newsom reflects on power imbalance in new essay - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-aide who had affair with Newsom reflects on power imbalance in new essay - 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