Former Newsom aide says Harris urged her to keep quiet

A woman who served as a high-ranking aide to Gavin Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco has publicly detailed their affair from two decades ago, alleging that Kamala Harris, then the city's district attorney, privately advised her to stay quiet when the scandal erupted. Ruby Rippey, 54, published a first-person account in Vanity Fair on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, breaking a long silence that has persisted since the affair became public in 2007.

Rippey, who was Newsom's appointments secretary, described a consensual relationship that began in July 2005 and lasted into 2006. At the time, she was married to Alex Tourk, Newsom's campaign manager and a close friend. Newsom was separated from, but still legally married to, his then-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle. In her essay, Rippey recounts specific encounters at hotels and Newsom's Russian Hill penthouse, framing the affair as fueled by addiction, status, and proximity to power. "I was not coerced. I knew what I was doing," she wrote, but added, "power does not need to coerce. It only needs to exist."

The affair ended when Rippey confessed to Tourk in an email. Tourk confronted Newsom and resigned immediately. On February 1, 2007,...