Ruby Rippey Gibney spent almost two decades saying almost nothing in public about the affair that ended her marriage and shook San Francisco politics. That changed this week.
She published a personal essay in Vanity Fair that lays out her side of the story for the first time. The essay has drawn wide coverage because it lands as Gavin Newsom, now California’s governor, is widely seen as weighing a run for president in 2028.
Who Is Ruby Rippey Gibney
Ruby Rippey Gibney also used the name Ruby Rippey-Tourk. She worked as an appointments secretary at San Francisco City Hall. She served during Gavin Newsom’s early years as mayor.A She was married to Alex Tourk at the time. Tourk was one of Newsom’s closest advisors. He later became Newsom’s reelection campaign manager. In 2007, Newsom admitted having an affair with Rippey. He said the relationship happened several years earlier. Rippey worked for Newsom during that period. She was also the wife of his campaign manager, Alex Tourk.
Today, Rippey lives in Mill Valley, California. She has said she is now 20 years sober, that she and Tourk eventually rebuilt their relationship as co-parents after divorcing, and that she has since remarried.
How the 2007 Scandal Unfolded
The affair reportedly took place in 2005, while Rippey was married to Tourk and working under Newsom at City Hall. It became public in early 2007, after Tourk learned about it and resigned from Newsom’s reelection campaign in response.
Newsom did not deny it. At a hastily called news conference, he acknowledged the relationship and apologized publicly, telling reporters, “Everything you’ve read is true and I’m deeply sorry for that.” He also called it a “personal lapse in judgment.”
| Detail | What Happened |
| Relationship timing | Reported to have occurred in 2005 |
| Public disclosure | January 2007 |
| Rippey’s role | Newsom’s appointments secretary at City Hall |
| Tourk’s role | Newsom’s senior advisor and reelection campaign manager |
| Immediate fallout | Tourk resigned; Newsom publicly apologized |
| Newsom’s reelection | Won later in 2007 with over 73% of the vote |
Despite the scandal, Newsom went on to win reelection as San Francisco mayor later that year with more than 73 percent of the vote. He was elected California’s governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022.
What the Vanity Fair Essay Adds
Rippey’s essay does not allege any criminal conduct. Instead, it is a personal account centered on addiction, recovery, shame, and the fallout from a relationship that became a defining moment in California political history.
A recurring theme is pushback against how Newsom has described the affair in his own recent memoir. He wrote that it was the “briefest of affairs” and described how he “came clean” to Tourk, a close friend — a characterization Rippey disputes in her essay, saying that particular detail is the one that has stayed with her.
Newsom’s office has not disputed the broader facts. A spokesperson said the governor acknowledged his role and apologized publicly nearly two decades ago, and that in the years since he has remarried, started a family, and focused on serving Californians. A separate statement to Newsweek said Rippey’s account is consistent with previous descriptions of the affair, and that Newsom was not in another relationship at the time it occurred.
Why the Story Is Resurfacing Now
Timing matters here. The essay arrives as Newsom finishes his final year as California governor and is widely viewed as laying the groundwork for a possible 2028 presidential campaign. Political reporters have framed Rippey’s decision to speak now as a way of reclaiming her own account of events before Newsom’s version becomes the dominant one on a national stage.
The Bottom Line
Ruby Rippey Gibney was a private citizen and City Hall staffer whose personal life became a major California political story in 2007 through no choice of her own. Two decades later, her Vanity Fair essay is less about scandal and more about sobriety, shame, and setting the record straight in her own words, at a moment when the man at the center of that story is positioning himself for a national campaign.
Sources: CNN Politics, Newsweek, SFist, and Rippey’s essay in Vanity Fair, as reported July 2026.
