The sleazy ‘betrayal’ that nearly broke Gavin Newsom is back in the spotlight

Gavin Newsom may be a Democratic Party star, but skeletons from his tenure as San Francisco mayor — namely a scandalous affair that nearly derailed his career — could haunt his White House ambitions.

Ruby Rippey-Gibney, the former City Hall aide who had a brief sexual relationship with Newsom in 2005, plans to tell her side of the explosive story in an upcoming Vanity Fair article, The California Post reported Wednesday.

While details of the piece are unknown, the story could dredge up details of the embarrassing affair that Newsom admitted to in 2007, when he was wrapping up a tumultuous first term as mayor that included reports of hard partying and philandering — including a fling with 19-year-old college student Brittanie Mountz when he was 38.

But Newsom’s affair with Rippey-Gibney, who was then married to his close friend and top aide Alex Tourk, was a new low for the hot-to-trot political star.

“Everything you’ve heard and read is true,” Newsom acknowledged at a press conference in February 2007.

“And I am deeply sorry about that.”

The affair took place after Newsom’s separation from first wife Kimblerly Guilfoyle, who later became a Fox News host and ambassador to Greece under President Donald Trump.

Rippey-Gibney, then called Ruby Rippey-Tourk and Newsom’s appointments secretary, was struggling with substance abuse issues and self-destructive behavior, she later admitted after entering rehab.

Tourk was Newsom’s aide and campaign manager who advised the rising political star on homelessness and other policy.

The now-California governor — who is expected to launch a presidential bid — called the tryst the “stupidest and also briefest of affairs and “the worst betrayal” of his life in his recent memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.”

He wrote that his sister, Hillary Newsom, “could see a connection sparking” between him and Rippey-Gibney and gave her a talking-to.

“Ruby was drinking too much and so was I. Her marriage was frayed and mine was over,” Newsom recounted.

“A few months later, Ruby was among a group of staffers who came to my apartment for a party. She was the last to leave,” Newsom wrote.

Rippey-Gibney, who has since remarried, entered rehab for alcohol and cocaine issues and later reflected on the affair during Newsom’s 2018 run for California governor.

She wrote that she had been going through a difficult period in her life, but felt she was a grown woman who wasn’t taken advantage of. She has since remarried.

Newsom, a wine entrepreneur, blamed the ill-fated affair on excessive drinking and initially claimed he sought substance abuse treatment. He later admitted to the Sacramento Bee that he never entered rehab and resumed drinking after a period of abstinence.

He was dating his current wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom when his dalliance with Rippey-Gibney was exposed.

Siebel Newsom, a small-time Hollywood actress turned feminist filmmaker, inserted herself into the drama by trashing Rippey-Gibney in a series of comments on a blog and to local news sites.

She called Rippey-Gibney “the culprit” in the affair and claimed she had a “checkered history” — but was quickly panned for appearing to downplay her powerful beau’s role in the tryst.

“I have tried to see Ruby’s side of the story but unfortunately everyone near to her has stories and says she is bad news,” she told The Chronicle.

Siebel Newsom later apologized for the remarks.

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