Ruby Rippey has published a personal essay in Vanity Fair telling her side of a scandal involving Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California. The affair first became public nearly twenty years ago. The essay, titled "How I Blew Up – Then Rebuilt – My Life," appeared on July 28, 2026 Vanity Fair. The Guardian covered the piece the same day The Guardian.

Here is what happened back then. Rippey worked for Newsom when he was the mayor of San Francisco. Her job was to help manage his schedule and appointments. She was married to Alex Tourk, who also worked for Newsom as a senior aide and later ran his re-election campaign. The affair took place more than two decades ago. In the essay, Rippey does not say Newsom's name. She calls him her "boss" and the "mayor" The Guardian.

The essay's subtitle describes what was at stake for her. It says Rippey "faced her demons but lost her voice," and "Twenty years later, she is ready to share her story" Vanity Fair.

Rippey says the affair started at a party with a hot tub. Her husband left early because he was upset she wanted to keep partying while he drove home to their one-year-old son. After that, Rippey rode in Newsom's chauffeured car to a hotel in Napa called The Carneros Inn. Newsom's sister and other people were in the car. During the ride, Newsom massaged Rippey's foot. She woke up the next morning next to Newsom at the hotel, having passed out. Her dress was wet because she had wet the bed Vanity Fair.

A few days later, Newsom placed Rippey's gold bracelet on her desk at work. It was a gift from her grandmother that she had left behind in the hotel room. After that, they met at his apartment, a back room in a bar, and a hotel in Los Angeles Vanity Fair.

Rippey says the relationship was not about love. She calls it an "intoxication" that came from being close to someone powerful and feeling "chosen" and "newly visible." She would look at Newsom's schedule to find times she might see him that night. At the time, she was struggling to stay sober and felt muted by being pregnant and being a new mother. She describes walking through San Francisco City Hall in "nude stilettos striking the marble floor" and feeling Newsom watching her Vanity Fair.

Newsom admitted to the relationship publicly in 2007 at a press conference at city hall. He said, "Everything you've heard and read is true" The Guardian. Reuters reported at the time that the affair happened about 18 months before the apology. Newsom was going through a divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle at the time. Guilfoyle later became a host on Fox News Reuters.

In his new memoir, Newsom calls the relationship "the briefest of affairs" and writes that he "came clean" to Alex Tourk. Rippey says this is not true. She says she had already told her husband the truth herself The Guardian.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who married Newsom in 2008, called Rippey the "culprit" in 2007. She later apologized for saying that. Kamala Harris, who was the top prosecutor in San Francisco at the time, contacted Rippey after the scandal broke and told her to take some time before speaking publicly. Rippey eventually went to rehab and left her job. She and Alex Tourk divorced The Guardian.

In 2018, Rippey described herself as "a free-thinking, 33-year-old, adult married woman and mother" with an "inclination toward drinking-to-excess" The Guardian.

The New York Post first reported on July 15, 2026, that Rippey was writing an essay for Vanity Fair, about two weeks before it came out New York Post. Yahoo News said the essay would force Newsom to face a "reckoning" over the affair Yahoo News. TMZ covered the essay on July 28 TMZ. The Sacramento Bee said the essay included new details that contradicted earlier accounts Sacramento Bee. The New York Post also reported on July 28 that Newsom had responded to Rippey's claims New York Post.

The timing matters. As of July 2026, Newsom is in the final year of his second term as governor of California. He is widely expected to run for president in 2028 The Guardian.

Rippey captures the heart of the story herself. She writes: "For my former boss, it is a footnote in a longer arc of ascent. For me, it is the fracture that split my life into before and after" The Guardian.

The broader context here is that the essay arrives just as Newsom's memoir is circulating and his plans for national office are taking shape. That means the affair will be read not just as a personal story but as a test of whether a candidate's past can survive new attention. The two sides disagree on who told Tourk the truth first. Harris's role as an adviser during the fallout adds another layer. And the detailed new account of the affair itself gives reporters and political opponents fresh material to dig into. Whether this essay changes how people see Newsom, or becomes the footnote Rippey says it already is for him, will depend on what the 2028 race looks like when it takes shape.