Getty Kimberly Guilfoyle and Gavin Newsom
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Fox News host, was previously married to Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California who is running for governor in that state.
Guilfoyle is now very publicly dating Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son. On July 20, 2018, Fox News confirmed that Guilfoyle is leaving Fox News. According to NBC News, she is joining a pro-Trump group and become more politically involved on the campaign trail. “FOX News has parted ways with Kimberly Guilfoyle,” was the statement from Fox.
Her marriage to the man who might soon be governor of California splintered after three years.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Guilfoyle & Gavin Newsom Broke Up Due to the Demands of Their Careers
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his wife Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom attend the GQ party in his honor July 27, 2004 at The Federalist Restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts.
Both Guilfoyle and Newsom had high-powered careers, and those careers took them to different coasts. They attributed their breakup – after three years of marriage – to the stresses of that situation.
The couple called it quits in 2005 when Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco. At the time, Guilfoyle was a host on Court TV. She lived in New York, where she was breaking into network TV after serving as a prosecutor, and he was located in San Francisco.
“Unfortunately, the demands of our respective careers have made it too difficult for us to continue as a married couple,” the couple said in the statement announcing the dissolution of their marriage. “Over the past 10 years, we have developed a tremendous bond of love and respect for each other. That will never change.”
Friends told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time that the pair still got along and weren’t in screaming matches or anything but that neither would budge when it came to prioritizing their careers.
2. Guilfoyle Lamented Gavin Newsom’s ‘Far Left Turn’ in an Interview
SAN FRANCISCO – DECEMBER 8: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (L) speaks at a campaign rally for San Francisco mayoral candidate Gavin Newsom (C) as Newsom’s wife Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom (R) looks on December 8, 2003 in San Francisco, California.
The politics of Guilfoyle and Newsom couldn’t be more different; she is a vocal conservative who supports the president’s policies, and he is running for governor on the Democratic ticket in a very blue state. Guilfoyle addressed these political differences in an interview she gave after she started dating Trump Jr. In it, she claimed that Newsom’s politics had changed.
Guilfoyle made the comments during a radio interview with Breitbart News’ Alex Marlow. “Gavin was not as far left as he’s gone now,” Guilfoyle said during the interview. “Sadly, now that he’s not under my tutelage and influence, he’s strayed.”
She also said in the interview that she was initially drawn to Newsom because he was a businessman, telling Marlow, “He was a businessman and we were involved in businesses together, so I liked his approach. He was very pro-business, very pro-small business… I liked that he wanted to be in public service like I was.”
She said in the interview that she doesn’t like a lot of Newsom’s positions now, especially on guns.
3. The Then-Couple Famously Posed Together Lying on a Carpet in a Mansion & Were Compared to the Kennedys
Newsom and Guilfoyle
While they were together, the then-mayor and his former prosecutor turned TV analyst wife were a glamour couple. They stoked that image in a photo spread in Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
The spread was headlined “The New Kennedys.” According to The Associated Press, the photos showed the pair “spooning on a carpet at the mansion of philanthropist Ann Getty, the mayor wearing a $995 Hugo Boss tuxedo, the first lady dolled up in a $1,998 gown and $575 pumps by Ralph Lauren.”
The magazine article reported that the couple “promises to be one of the most glamorous political unions since Jack and Jackie” and it quoted Newsom as saying of Guilfoyle, “It’s this wonderful combination of being in love and extraordinarily proud.”
The couple did not have children together.
4. Newsom Had an Affair With His Mayoral Appointments Secretary
Newsom and Guilfoyle
It later emerged that Gavin Newsom, while he was mayor, had an affair with a woman named Ruby Rippey Gibney. She emerged with a new statement on Facebook in the wake of the #metoo movement. According to The Los Angeles Times, “The affair between Newsom and Ruby Rippey-Tourk reportedly took place when Newsom was splitting from his then-wife, attorney and television analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle. Newsom and Guilfoyle filed for divorce in January 2005.”
Ruby Rippey Gibney — city employee who in 2005 had affair with then-SF Mayor @gavinnewsom says it wasn’t a #MeToo moment t.co/PoBtLbRivs via @sfchronicle
“I fully support the #metoo movement. In this particular instance, however, I am doubtful that it applies,” Rippey Gibney wrote on her Facebook page. “Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a free-thinking, 33-yr old adult married woman & mother. (I also happened to have an unfortunate inclination towards drinking-to-excess & self-destruction.)”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Newsom and Rippey Gibney “had an affair when she worked as the then-mayor’s appointments secretary. At the time, she was married to the Democrat’s campaign manager and friend, Alex Tourk.”
Then 39, the mayor admitted to the indiscretion, saying, “I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I’m deeply sorry about that. I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about — Alex Tourk, and his friends and family. And that is something I have to live with.”
5. Both Gavin Newsom & Kimberly Guilfoyle Went on to Marry Again
Both Newsom and Guilfoyle would marry again; Newsom is still married to his second wife, whereas Guilfoyle married and divorced her second husband and is now dating Trump Jr. In 2006, Guilfoyle married Eric Villency, the head of a furniture chain founded by his grandfather. They divorced in 2009 but had a son together.
Gavin Newsom is currently married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Her Facebook page reads, “Founder/CEO The Representation Project; Filmmaker ‘Miss Representation’ and ‘The Mask You Live In;’ Mom of 4; Wife of Gavin Newsom.” Her biography on the page of the Lieutenant Governor reads, “An advocate for women, girls, and their families, Jennifer Siebel Newsom is a filmmaker, speaker and President and CEO of the non-profit organization The Representation Project, a call-to-action campaign and media organization established to shift people’s consciousness, inspire individual and community action and ultimately, transform culture.” The page says “Newsom resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and is the proud mother of three young children, Montana, Hunter and Brooklynn.” The couple now also has a fourth child.
The couple caused controversy when Newsom’s wife posted a photo showing she uses dog poop bags with President Trump’s face on them.