SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 29 (Our California Times) — Ruby Rippey, a former San Francisco City Hall aide, has published a first-person essay in Vanity Fair revisiting her affair with then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, her struggle with alcoholism and the way the scandal unfolded in public.
The essay matters because it revisits one of the most famous California political scandals of the past two decades and adds a new claim: Rippey says then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris called her after the affair became public and told her to stay quiet for the moment.
What Rippey says happened
In the essay, Rippey writes that the relationship began while she was working at City Hall and Newsom was mayor of San Francisco. She says she was married at the time to Alex Tourk, a Newsom aide whose title is described in different accounts as campaign manager, deputy chief of staff or political adviser.
Rippey also describes her alcoholism and recovery, saying the scandal hit while she was already dealing with the consequences of drinking problems. Her account frames the affair not just as a political controversy, but as a personal collapse that changed her life.
What she says Kamala Harris told her
Rippey writes that after the affair broke publicly, Harris called her and advised her not to speak right away. The quote Rippey attributes to Harris is: “I wouldn’t say anything right now, Ruby. Just pause. More time will give you better perspective.”
That claim comes from Rippey’s own recollection in the essay. The reporting available here does not include a contemporaneous public record of that call.
How the scandal became public
The affair became public in 2007. At a February 2007 news conference, Newsom publicly acknowledged it and said, “Everything you’ve heard and read is true.”
Later accounts say Tourk resigned after confronting Newsom about the affair.
Why the essay is getting attention now
Rippey’s essay is drawing attention because it revisits a long-running California political story from the perspective of someone who says she lived through the personal and professional fallout. It also puts Harris, now a national political figure, back into the narrative through Rippey’s claim about the phone call.
The piece does not accuse Newsom of nonconsensual sex, according to Politico’s summary of the essay. The core dispute in the public reporting is not about whether an affair happened — Newsom acknowledged that in 2007 — but about what Rippey says followed and how she experienced the aftermath.
What readers should know about the context
This was a San Francisco story from the start. The people involved worked in and around City Hall, and the offices tied to the scandal were the mayor’s office and the district attorney’s office. That is why the episode remains part of California political history, even years later.
Rippey’s essay is, at its core, a personal account. It offers her version of the affair, the damage it caused and the advice she says she got when the story went public. As with any retrospective account, the key claims are strongest where they are tied to named people and events already on the public record, and less certain where they depend only on memory years later.
