Gavin Newsom published a memoir five months ago designed to clear his path to the White House.
Now the woman at the center of his biggest scandal just called him a liar in Vanity Fair.
And the timing could not be worse for the man who wants to be president.
She Confirmed What Newsom Tried to Bury in His Own Book
In his memoir Young Man in a Hurry, released in February, Newsom described the affair with his appointments secretary Ruby Rippey as "the stupidest and also briefest of affairs" – and then did something revealing.
He wrote that he was the one who "came clean" to Alex Tourk, his campaign manager and close friend.
The problem: Tourk was also Rippey's husband.
And Rippey says Newsom didn't tell Tourk anything.
She did.
"It reads – to me, at least – as a version of events that gives him credit for something I had already done," Rippey wrote in her Vanity Fair essay published Tuesday. "Technically defensible, perhaps, but one that leaves the unmistakable impression that he, not I, was the one who told Alex the truth."
That one detail – who confessed, and who took credit for it – is the difference between a man who owned his mistakes and a man who rewrote them.
Newsom chose the version where he looks better.
In reality, Rippey sent Tourk an email in January 2007 confessing the affair herself.
She says she couldn't face him in person.
Tourk then requested a meeting with Newsom – who was at the World Economic Forum in Davos – to confront him directly.
He got no straight answer.
The man who wants to be your president couldn't look his best friend in the eye.
What He Did to Alex Tourk
Newsom betrayed his campaign manager – the man who ran his operation, who trusted him with his career and his loyalty.
Alex Tourk found out his wife had been sleeping with his boss for months.
Found out via an email she sent because she couldn't say it to his face.
Then he flew to confront Newsom directly – and got nothing.
Newsom was in Davos, rubbing elbows with the global elite, while Tourk's marriage was falling apart back home.
Tourk resigned from Newsom's team.
Newsom issued a public apology.
And then Gavin Newsom – the man who slept with his campaign manager's wife – kept climbing.
Lieutenant Governor.
https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/2082186669436903612?s=20
Governor.
Now the presumptive 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner.
It's worth noting who Newsom was married to before all of this: Kimberly Guilfoyle, now President Trump's ambassador to Greece.
After that divorce, he had an affair with his subordinate while she was married to his best friend.
For Tourk, it cost him his marriage.
For Rippey, it was, in her words, "the fracture that split my life into before and after."
For Newsom, it became a chapter in a book designed to help him win the White House.
A Presidential Candidate Who Can't Tell the Truth About a 20-Year-Old Affair Won't Tell the Truth About Anything Else
Here is what Newsom's office said in response to Rippey's essay: "The Governor acknowledged his role and publicly apologized nearly two decades ago when he was still mayor."
That's the statement of a man who wants you to look away.
Newsom wrote an entire memoir to control this story before a presidential run.
He included the affair – calculated.
He described himself as the one who came clean – calculated.
He called it brief and stupid – calculated.
Every word designed to bury the story before anyone could dig it up.
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Then the woman who actually lived it took 20 years to find her voice, published her account in Vanity Fair, and contradicted him on the one detail that mattered most.
The man who lectures about character – who criticizes Trump at every opportunity – couldn't tell a straight story about the moment in his life that most required honesty.
He rewrote it to make himself the hero.
That's not character.
That's the same instinct that produces every failed Democrat presidential candidate: perform accountability, manage the narrative, hope no one checks.
Ruby Rippey checked.
Sources:
- Ruby Rippey, "An Essay on the Affair," Vanity Fair, July 28, 2026.
- "Newsom memoir sparked Ruby Rippey's Vanity Fair tell-all," SF Standard, July 28, 2026.
- "Newsom's Former Aide Lifts Lid on Explosive Affair," The Daily Beast, July 28, 2026.
- "Speaking of Sleazebags, Newsom May Not Survive the Growing Scrutiny," HotAir, July 8, 2026.
- "Newsom stop in key presidential primary state sparks more 2028 speculation," Fox News, February 12, 2026.
