Ruby Rippey Gibney, who had an affair with California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2007 when he was mayor of San Francisco, has detailed their relationship, including their first sexual encounter, in a new interview. Rippey Gibney shared these accounts in a piece published by Vanity Fair.
According to Rippey Gibney, the affair began on July 2, 2005, at a wedding for a City Hall staffer. She attended the wedding wearing a white dress, against her mother's advice. While at the event, she consumed champagne and wine and later found herself in a hallway with Newsom while waiting for a bathroom. They also met again later that evening at a hot tub.
Rippey Gibney described the rest of that night as a blur, stating that all encounters with Newsom were consensual, even those she did not fully recall due to intoxication. She recalled Newsom massaging her feet in a chauffeured car. She later woke up next to Newsom in a hotel room, still dressed and "soaked from the waist down," indicating she had passed out and wet the bed.
She recounted rushing back to her husband, Alex Tourk, who was Newsom's former deputy chief of staff. Tourk had reportedly left the wedding early, displeased with his wife's desire to stay and continue celebrating.
Rippey Gibney stated that she and Newsom continued to see each other after this initial encounter, a period when Newsom was separated and divorcing his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Rippey Gibney worked as Newsom's appointment secretary, with a desk situated outside his office at his request, allowing her to act as a gatekeeper.
