Gavin Newsom admitted he never attended a formal rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse after his affair with his best friend’s wife was exposed, despite previous reports suggesting he had.
The Governor of California publicly stated he would be seeking help for his alcohol issues in 2007, amid the fallout from his relationship with his campaign manager Alex Rourk’s spouse, Ruby Rippey-Tourk.
However, more than a decade went by before he revealed that he had never entered rehab, as had been extensively reported.
The issue has reared its head again amid intense scrutiny of Newsom over his response to the California wildfires.
In 2018, the then-aspiring governor revealed he quit drinking for two years entirely shortly after the affair, but was back to drinking in moderation.
He credited his sobriety to the Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco and its CEO, Mimi Silbert.
‘There’s no rehab. I just stopped,’ he told the Sacramento Bee during his 2018 run for office. ‘There was no treatment, no nothing related to any of that stuff. I stopped because I thought it was a good thing to stop.
‘There is no 12-step (program) here,’ Newsom added of his time with Delancey Street. ‘There are no issues with that. There never was. This was a need to reset.’
Newsom said he decided to give up booze after admitting to an affair with Rippey-Tourk, now Rippey-Gibney, who was his secretary when he was mayor of San Francisco.
At the time, Newsom was also married to Fox news host Kimberly Guilfoyle.
He revealed the affair during a February 2007 press conference, pledging to seek help for alcohol issues a few days later.
‘My problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment,’ Newsom said in a statement reported across several news outlets.
‘Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life.’
However his admissions in 2018 alter the narrative about rehab which had gone unchecked for several years.
Newsom has come under fire again in recent days for his response to the Los Angeles wildfires, which many feel has been lackluster.
Many online commentators have dredged up his past as further evidence of his inefficacy as a leader.
‘Look, it’s not my problem if this guy has affairs and drinks too much,’ attorney Laura Powell wrote.
‘But when he has an affair with a subordinate, and when he misleads the public into thinking he’s turning over a new leaf by going into rehab, it becomes everyone’s business.’
‘While San Francisco Mayor, a married Gavin Newsom had an affair with with his Campaign Manager’s wife! Gavin has always been SCUM!’ Another person added.
‘Governor Newsom has some mental issues going on,’ one person wrote.
‘We cannot have a narcissist, self-centered, egotistical, alcoholic, womanizer, running our beautiful state of California. Who thinks Gavin Newsom needs to step down.’
Newsom maintains he no longer has a drinking problem and is a partner in several wineries through PlumpJack Wines, the company he founded in the early 1990s.
The governor was recently left floundering for answers after he was accosted by an angry mom who was begging for answers after her daughter’s school burned down.
And in a recent interview on Pod Save America he attempted to shunt blame onto Los Angeles officials, stating that he wasn’t ‘getting straight answers’ when asking about the response.