Ruby Rippey, the woman whose affair with then-Mayor Gavin Newsom sparked a 2007 California political scandal, detailed the encounter step-by-step in a piece published Tuesday in Vanity Fair, while revealing the role former Vice President Kamala Harris played in advising her afterward.
Rippey, who was married to Newsom’s campaign manager at the time, Alex Tourk, and who served as the mayor’s appointments secretary, disclosed that Harris, who, at the time was the San Francisco District Attorney, privately advised Rippey to “pause” and refrain from public comment or taking a book deal as the scandal broke.
“She listens, then says simply: ‘I wouldn’t say anything right now, Ruby. Just pause. More time will give you better perspective,’” Rippey claims Harris told her after the affair became public.
The essay chronicles Rippey’s battle with alcoholism, the eventual breakdown in her marriage and her journey to sobriety, while questioning how Newsom’s team framed the affair in his memoir.
Rippey disputes Newsom’s memoir, writing that it claims he was the one who “came clean” to her husband, a detail she says gives him credit for a confession she had already made. When she asked a Newsom advisor if the governor “tells the truth” in the book, he responded, “Well, we all remember things differently, don’t we, Ruby?”