Newsom Responds To Rippey’s Claims After Ex-Mistress Goes Public

All encounters, she emphasizes, were consensual, even those she was too intoxicated to fully remember.

At the time, Rippey was married to Newsom’s close friend and top aide Alex Tourk, who was running the mayor’s re-election campaign.

Newsom himself had not yet finalized his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle, now the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

Rippey entered rehab in May 2006 and ended the affair but did not confess to her husband until January 2007.

Tourk confronted Newsom, resigned, and the scandal exploded publicly.

Newsom held a somber press conference admitting, “Everything you’ve heard and read is true,” and apologizing for hurting “someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk.”

The episode forced Newsom to seek alcohol treatment and nearly ended his rising political trajectory.