Ruby Rippey, formerly Ruby Rippey-Tourk, has published a personal essay about her alcohol-fueled affair with Gavin Newsom during his first term as mayor of San Francisco — while Rippey’s husband Alex Tourk was one of Newsom’s top advisors.

Ruby Rippey, who worked as Gavin Newsom’s aide during his early years as San Francisco mayor, has broken two decades of silence with a first-person essay in Vanity Fair reflecting on the affair that upended her marriage, derailed her career, and became one of the biggest political scandals during Newsom’s time at SF City Hall. The essay arrives as Newsom finishes his final year as governor and is widely viewed as laying the groundwork for a possible 2028 presidential campaign, according to the New York Times.

Rippey writes in Vanity Fair that she kept quiet for years after taking responsibility for the affair, but now wants to tell her side of the story. She describes struggling with alcoholism, cocaine addiction, and the stress of new motherhood when the relationship began in 2005, while also acknowledging that Newsom, as her boss, held the power in the relationship.

"Power does not need to coerce. It only needs to exist. The responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it," writes Rippey. "That didn’t happen."

At the same time, Rippey repeatedly says she does not view herself as having been coerced and accepts responsibility for her actions. She writes that the affair began while she was drinking heavily and continued intermittently for several months, describing it as less about romance than the intoxicating pull of proximity to power. She says her substance use escalated to the point that she entered rehab, resigned from City Hall, and ended the relationship before returning home.

"It wasn’t the affair that derailed me. It was my alcoholism," she writes. "The affair just gave it somewhere to live."

As SFist reported at the time, when the scandal surfaced, Rippey’s then-husband Alex Tourk had just been appointed as Newsom’s reelection campaign manager after previously serving as his appointments secretary. Tourk confronted Newsom after Rippey disclosed the affair, leading to Tourk's resignation. The revelation stunned City Hall, where rumors about the relationship had already been circulating for months.

The essay also revisits the fallout after the scandal became public in 2007, including comments from Newsom's then-girlfriend Jennifer Siebel in a now-famous SFist post, who characterized the affair as "a couple nothing incidents," and called Rippey "the culprit" before later apologizing.

"For my former boss, [the affair] is a footnote in a longer arc of ascent," writes Rippey in Vanity Fair, in reference to Newsom’s memoir. "For me, it is the fracture that split my life into before and after."

Rippey also disputes part of Newsom's recently published memoir, taking issue with his account that he "came clean" to Tourk about the affair, as Rippey had already confessed to her husband before he confronted Newsom.

The Times reports that Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said Tuesday that the governor publicly apologized for his conduct years ago and has nothing further to add. Rippey, now 20 years sober, lives in Mill Valley. She says she and Tourk eventually rebuilt their relationship as co-parents after divorcing, and she has since remarried.

Previously: Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference  February 1, 2007 in San Francisco. Mayor Newsom admitted to an affair  with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of his re-election campaign manager  Alex Tourk who resigned yesterday after learning of the affair.  (Photo  by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)