Former San Francisco City Hall aide Ruby Rippey has described her affair with Gavin Newsom in a Vanity Fair essay, revisiting a scandal that damaged his political circle when he was the city’s mayor. The account matters because it offers Rippey’s most detailed public perspective nearly two decades later and disputes aspects of how Newsom has characterised the episode.

Rippey says the relationship began in 2005, while she was married to Newsom’s friend and deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk, and that she eventually disclosed it to her husband. She links her actions to addiction and says she entered rehabilitation in 2006; Newsom publicly apologised after the affair emerged in 2007. A Newsom spokesperson said he had acknowledged and apologised for his role at the time and had no further comment.