Breaking two decades of silence, a woman who had a high-profile romantic affair with Gavin Newsom revealed that Kamala Harris privately stepped in to urge her to stay completely quiet just as the explosive 2007 political scandal initially broke out.
Ruby Rippey, 54, published her first-person account on Tuesday in a Vanity Fair essay, landing as both Newsom and Harris weigh 2028 presidential runs. The timing turns a scandal many viewed as settled into a live question about power, workplace conduct, and how the party's two biggest names handled it.
The Advice That Kept Her Quiet
Rippey worked as Newsom's appointments secretary when he was mayor of San Francisco. She was also married to Alex Tourk, his campaign manager and close friend. She writes that the affair began in the summer of 2005, during a period when she was struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction.
When the scandal became public in 2007, Rippey says Harris, then the city's district attorney, called her. Broke, unemployed, and weighing a memoir offer, Rippey recalls Harris telling her to 'just pause' because more time would give her 'better perspective'. She now calls it the best advice she received and stayed largely silent for years.
A Boss, a Secretary and the Power Between
Rippey does not allege coercion, but she frames the relationship around the imbalance between a mayor and his subordinate. 'Power does not need to coerce. It only needs to exist,' she writes, adding that the duty to hold the line sat with the person who held the power. She says she owns her choices while insisting the greater responsibility was his.
She says the 2017 #MeToo movement reshaped how she understood what happened. For Newsom, she writes, the affair reads as a footnote. For her, it split her life into a before and an after.
Newsom's Account Under Fire
Much of the essay disputes how Newsom described events in his own memoir, published earlier this year. He called it the 'briefest of affairs' and 'the worst betrayal' of his life, and said he 'came clean' to Tourk. Rippey counters that she had already confessed to her husband, and that Newsom's telling hands him credit for something she did.
A spokesperson for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said the governor acknowledged his role and apologised nearly two decades ago, met his wife, started a family, and has since focused on serving Californians. Gardon added that Newsom has nothing further to say.
Why It Lands Now
Harris has not publicly responded, and a representative did not comment when contacted. Both she and Newsom, 58, rose through California politics with early backing from former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, and both have supported each other's ambitions over the years.
That history now faces fresh scrutiny, and Newsom's private life is likely to draw sharper attention if he formally enters the race. Harris said in April she 'might' run in 2028. Newsom has said 'fate will determine' whether their careers collide. Rippey's essay makes certain that a 20-year-old scandal, and the way allies managed it, follows both of them into the race.
