When it comes to Gavin Newsom and Kimberly Guilfoyle’s former marriage, we’re certainly not the first to say it seems bizarre they were ever an item — let alone that they were once referred to as “the new Kennedys.” Of course, people do change, so we’ll give them that. However, let’s just say some aspects of their union felt a little off from the get-go.
We’ll start at the very beginning. Prior to meeting Newsom, Guilfoyle was in a relationship with another high-society suitor. That would be Billy Getty, scion of the Getty fortune … and also, incidentally, Newsom’s childhood bestie. Making matters even more awkward, in a 2004 profile by Harper’s Bazaar, the then-couple revealed that they’d met at a restaurant co-owned by Newsom. The other owner? Getty.
Now, it’s possible that Guilfoyle and Getty’s relationship was never particularly serious, and that there was no awkwardness resulting from the little switcheroo. However, the weirdness didn’t end there. Au contraire, in the same Harper’s Bazaar interview, Guilfoyle revealed that she and Ann Getty (that’d be Billy’s mom) were so close she saw her as a mother figure and that she’d even worn Ann’s tiara for the wedding. Oh, and the shoot for the interview had taken place in Ann’s home, too. That this hasn’t already been turned into a movie is beyond us.
The former couple’s opinions of Kamala Harris differed (a lot!)
It’s no secret that Kimberly Guilfoyle and Kamala Harris have drama that goes way back. However, to borrow from a statement once issued by Buckingham Palace, it seems recollections of the beef varied, somewhat. While Guilfoyle has repeatedly made it clear that she and Harris are not friends, both the 2024 presidential hopeful and Guilfoyle’s ex-husband have hinted to the contrary.
ICYMI, tensions between Guilfoyle and Harris came to the fore back in 2003. At the time, Guilfoyle did an interview with SFGate, in which she claimed Harris had tried to prevent her from getting a job at the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, where they’d previously worked together. “She called me and said basically that she was on the hiring committee and in charge of the budget for the D.A.’s office, and that I should have gone through her if I wanted to return to the D.A.’s office — and that there was no money to hire me,” Guilfoyle told the outlet. Harris’ response was that that hadn’t happened and that the only reason she’d called Guilfoyle was to offer her assistance. That could have been awkward enough, except Harris added that she’d hung out with Guilfoyle a bunch of times between the call and her comments to SFGate … and two decades later, Newsom suggested that was the case, too.
In a 2023 interview on “The Axe Files with David Axelrod,” Newsom recounted, “We were close with Kamala, she knew her well.” Perhaps Newsom and Harris were friends and Guilfoyle wasn’t quite as enamored. It wouldn’t be the first time someone didn’t get along with their spouse’s friends. However, the fact that such conflicting accounts have been shared so publicly is bizarre, at best.
The couple had differing political views from the start
Another strange detail about Kimberly Guilfoyle and Gavin Newsom’s former marriage? Their political leanings. Now, it’s certainly not unheard of for married couples to have differing views, but it’s definitely is a little surprising that during her marriage to Gavin Newsom, Kimberly Guilfoyle was a registered Republican. What’s more, on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Guilfoyle explained that she was also a member of the Young Republicans party during her time at UC Davis. Seemingly hinting at how she and Newsom managed to fall in love despite that, she explained that she’d been impressed by his focus on small businesses early on in his career.
Again, all of the above could be explained away as totally normal — but speaking to The Washington Post, some insiders felt it a little strange that she never spoke about her own political leanings, even in a private capacity. Granted, that might have had something to do with Guilfoyle not wanting her own views known, lest they create a problem for her then-husband as he climbed the ranks of the Democratic Party. However, the insiders also got the sense that both Guilfoyle and Newsom treated the marriage as some kind of a stepping stone to something bigger. One source even mused that the then-couple “felt like they were passing through.”
Post-divorce, it’s pretty clear Guilfoyle has no qualms about sharing her political beliefs with the world, or the fact that she’s always been a registered Republican. In fact, in her interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Guilfoyle slammed Newsom’s shady dig that she’d changed after becoming a Fox reporter, claiming that it was he who had switched gears and was no longer a champion for small business owners. Yikes!
Kimberly and Gavin went long-distance early on
While some may assume Kimberly Guilfoyle and Gavin Newsom parted ways as a result of their differing views, that’s not the case. Quite the contrary, the real reason Guilfoyle and Newsom got divorced is because their careers pulled them in opposite directions.
Within days of Newsom’s mayoral inauguration, Guilfoyle jetted to the East Coast for a new gig as the co-anchor of Court TV. She also earned a commentator’s spot at CNN. At the time, Guilfoyle was less than impressed by critics questioning why the first lady of San Francisco was in another state, and she made a point of clapping back at the underlying sexism. As she quipped in an interview with SFGate, “Why can’t a couple have two major careers? And why is it weird for the woman to be the bicoastal one? Men do it all the time! To these people who question our marriage, I want to ask: How is your marriage doing? Mine is just fine.” Fair enough!
Sadly, it turned out that being bicoastal didn’t work out for Guilfoyle and Newsom. In a statement issued to the press in January 2005, the couple shared, “Unfortunately, the demands of our respective careers have made it too difficult for us to continue as a married couple” (via SFGate). However, they shared that there was a ton of love and respect between them, of which they said, “That will never change.” If only they had a crystal ball for what was to come.
The end of their marriage caused a ton of confusion
While Kimberly Guilfoyle and Gavin Newsom’s plans to stay friends forever changed a few years after she began seeing Donald Trump Jr., in the immediate post-split period, they remained super close. Like, attending events together, close. In fact, Guilfoyle’s presence at a number of events towards the end of 2005 (including a visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla) even prompted speculation that she and the then-mayor of San Francisco had rekindled their marriage — specifically because they hadn’t actually finalized their divorce.
Here’s the kicker: It was in late 2005 that Newsom began hooking up with the wife of one of his employees. That’s not to say the affair that rocked Newsom and Guilfoyle’s marriage was the final straw, though. On the contrary, in November 2005, Guilfoyle actually told SFGate, “We are not back together.” This, despite Newsom hanging out with Guilfoyle’s family, and telling those who raised questions about it, “I have a very confusing life.” Well, he wasn’t lying about that.
To this day, it’s not clear if Guilfoyle knew about the affair, if there was an attempt by her and Newsom to try again, or if she was simply enjoying her last days of being San Francisco’s first lady and the friendship about which she and her estranged husband had already spoken. Either way, it was a decidedly strange time in their relationship. Then again, given all the other bizarre details of this union, we guess that was just on brand for them.
