California’s 40th governor started out selling wine from a small shop in San Francisco. Gavin Newsom, 59, built the PlumpJack wine and hospitality group with backing from the Getty family, then went from city supervisor to mayor, lieutenant governor and, since January 2019, governor of the largest state in the US. He is married to filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has four children, and was once married to Kimberly Guilfoyle. With his second term ending in January 2027, he has said he will decide on a 2028 run for president after the midterms.
| Date of Birth | October 10, 1967 |
|---|---|
| Age | 59 years |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac Sign | Libra |
| Occupation | Governor of California; businessman |
| Political Party | Democratic |
| Office | 40th Governor of California (2019–2027) |
| Previous Roles | 49th Lieutenant Governor of California (2011–2019); 42nd Mayor of San Francisco (2004–2011) |
| Spouse | Jennifer Siebel Newsom (m. 2008) |
| Ex-Spouse | Kimberly Guilfoyle (2001–2006) |
| Children | 4 (Montana, Hunter, Brooklynn, Dutch) |
| Parents | William Newsom III, Tessa Menzies |
| Education | Santa Clara University |
| Business | PlumpJack Group (founded 1991) |
Regina DanielsBiography
Gavin Christopher Newsom was born on October 10, 1967, in San Francisco. His father, William Alfred Newsom III, was a lawyer for Getty Oil who later became a state appeals court judge. His mother, Tessa Menzies, worked as a waitress, bookkeeper and secretary. The couple divorced in 1971, and Gavin and his younger sister, Hilary, grew up mostly with their mother.
Money sat close to the family but not inside it. William Newsom was a lifelong friend of oil heir Gordon Getty and helped manage a Getty family trust. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO in July 2025, Newsom said people see him as a “slick guy” who “grew up with a trust fund, but I didn’t come from any wealth.” He said his father “led a very wealthy lifestyle” through his friends, while he, his mother and sister lived on frozen dinners and boxed macaroni.
Severe dyslexia shaped his school years. He has said he could barely read as a child, leaned on CliffsNotes and relied on audiobooks and spoken instruction. In the same interview, he recalled his mother telling him, during a night when he could not finish a chapter, that “it’s okay to be average.” He added, “That’s a hell of a thing to say to a kid,” but said he has forgiven her.
He went to a French-American Catholic school in San Francisco, then graduated from Redwood High School in Larkspur in 1985. Baseball helped get him into Santa Clara University, where he earned a degree in political science in 1989. He told The Diary of a CEO that dyslexia “certainly was the greatest gift” for his business life, because it forced him to think around problems.
Career
PlumpJack and the wine business
Newsom went into business straight out of college. PlumpJack Associates was formed on May 14, 1991, and the first PlumpJack wine shop opened in San Francisco the next year. Gordon Getty invested in 10 of his first 11 businesses. Over the 1990s the group added restaurants, a Napa Valley winery and an inn at Squaw Valley, and it grew to more than 700 employees.
On The Diary of a CEO, he described the formula as “fail forward fast” and said he once paid staff $500 for trying ideas that flopped. “I love failure. I’m good at it. Dyslexics are the best at it,” he said. In 2025 he said the group owned four wineries, including PlumpJack, Cade and Odette in Napa Valley.
San Francisco politics
Newsom’s political start came through his businesses. He volunteered for Willie Brown’s 1995 mayoral campaign, and Brown named him to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission in 1996. A year later Brown appointed him to the Board of Supervisors, where his father swore him in as the board’s youngest member. He won the seat outright in 1998 and kept it in 2000 and 2002.
His best-known measure as supervisor was Care Not Cash, which swapped cash welfare payments for homeless people with housing and services. He ran for mayor in 2003 and beat Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez in a runoff, 53% to 47%. He was sworn in on January 8, 2004, at 36, and sold his stakes in San Francisco businesses on taking office.
Five weeks later, he told the city to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, against state law. More than 4,000 couples married at City Hall over 28 days before the California Supreme Court voided the licenses in August 2004. Voters re-elected him in 2007 with more than 72% of the vote.
Lieutenant governor
Newsom was elected lieutenant governor in 2010 and sworn in on January 10, 2011, serving under Governor Jerry Brown. He won a second term in 2014 with 57.2% of the vote against Republican Ron Nehring. Alongside the job, he hosted The Gavin Newsom Show on Current TV from 2012 to 2013 and published his first book, Citizenville, on February 7, 2013.
Governor of California
Newsom beat Republican John Cox by a wide margin in the November 2018 election and was sworn in on January 7, 2019. Two months later, he put a moratorium on the death penalty in California. His first term was dominated by COVID-19 orders, wildfires, homelessness and a 2021 recall vote.
That recall, held on September 14, 2021, failed, with about 38% of voters backing his removal. He won a second term in November 2022 with 59.2% of the vote against state senator Brian Dahle. California law limits him to two terms, so he leaves office in January 2027.
His clashes with Donald Trump became the main story of his second term. In June 2025, after Trump federalized about 4,000 California National Guard troops during protests in Los Angeles, California sued in a case called Newsom v. Trump. After Texas redrew its congressional map to add Republican seats, Newsom pushed Proposition 50 to let California redraw its own, and voters approved it on November 4, 2025, according to KQED.
Podcasts and books
Newsom started a sports and politics podcast, Politickin’, with former NFL star Marshawn Lynch in July 2024. In 2025 he launched This Is Gavin Newsom, inviting conservative guests such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. On that show he called trans women’s participation in women’s sports “deeply unfair,” which drew pushback from LGBTQ+ groups.
His memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, came out from Penguin on February 24, 2026. Journalist Mark Arax worked on it with him, and its release had been pushed back from 2025 by the Los Angeles wildfires. In it he writes that “attacking Trump the personality, while it might do wonders for the gut, was a losing game.” The book debuted on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction list, and he took it on a national tour.
Controversies and Disputes
The 2004 same-sex marriage licenses brought the first national backlash. Newsom later wrote that he wanted to be “bold,” and that the move drew criticism from Republicans and from Democrats including Dianne Feinstein and Barack Obama. The licenses were voided, but California’s courts and voters kept the fight going until same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in 2015.
In January 2007, his campaign manager Alex Tourk learned that his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, had had an affair with Newsom in 2005 while she worked in his office. Tourk resigned, and Newsom admitted the affair the next day, saying he was “deeply sorry” for a “personal lapse of judgment.” In February 2007 he said he would seek treatment for alcohol use. In his memoir he calls the affair “the worst betrayal of my life.” Speaking on The Diary of a CEO, he added: “I embarrassed my dad. I embarrassed myself.” He said he and Tourk are friends today.
On November 6, 2020, he attended a birthday dinner for a lobbyist at The French Laundry in Napa while telling Californians to avoid gatherings. “I should have modeled better behavior and not joined the dinner,” he said in a statement. The dinner became a rallying point for the 2021 recall, which he survived.
His memoir launch drew its own row. Federal Election Commission filings from April 2026 showed his political action committee, Campaign for Democracy, paid more than $1.5 million to Porchlight Book Company for about 67,000 copies to give to donors. His team called it list-building and said he received no royalties on those copies.
Federal investigation
On June 15, 2026, Newsom said in a video that the Justice Department was investigating him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. He said Trump was “coming after me because I’m considering running for president” and that agents had visited family, friends and former staff, ABC News reported. The case is run by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento. A source told CNN that it began from whistleblower reports and covers Siebel Newsom’s taxes. A source told the Associated Press that Newsom himself is not under investigation, but several people around him are.
In early September 2026, prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas for six years of records, the San Francisco Standard reported. They cover the California State Protocol Foundation, which pays for his overseas travel, his international trips, and money used for his home and personal costs. Those named include his chief protocol officer Rebecca Prowda, campaign lawyer Tom Willis and four foundation board members. A newer subpoena asks for communications with Siebel Newsom. The subpoenas do not name a specific crime.
The probe is separate from the case of Dana Williamson, his former chief of staff. She pleaded guilty on May 14, 2026, to three federal charges in a scheme that took $225,000 from Xavier Becerra’s old campaign account, ABC7 reported, and Newsom was not accused of wrongdoing. Newsom and his wife have not been charged. His office calls the investigation baseless and says there are no crimes to find. The Justice Department has declined to comment.
Wife and Marriage: Jennifer Siebel Newsom
Gavin Newsom’s wife is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actress turned documentary filmmaker. She was born on June 19, 1974, in San Francisco and grew up in Ross, in Marin County. She wrote and directed Miss Representation (2011) and runs The Representation Project, a nonprofit on gender stereotypes.
The two were set up on a blind date by mutual friends and began dating in October 2006. They announced their engagement in December 2007 and married on July 26, 2008, at her family’s ranch in Stevensville, Montana. When he became governor, she chose the title “first partner” rather than first lady.
The partnership is public by design. In a February 2026 Bloomberg Originals interview, asked who makes the calls at home, Newsom joked, “Jen basically calls the shots,” and she replied, “I’m all about partnership.” In his memoir he writes that she had a miscarriage in 2020, with what would have been their fifth child, and needed emergency surgery.
First Wife: Kimberly Guilfoyle
Newsom’s first wife was Kimberly Guilfoyle, then a San Francisco prosecutor. Billy Getty introduced them, and they married in December 2001 at Saint Ignatius Church in San Francisco. When he became mayor in January 2004, she became the city’s first lady.
The marriage didn’t survive her move to New York for TV work. They separated in 2004, filed jointly for divorce in January 2005, and the divorce was finalized on February 28, 2006. They had no children. Newsom writes in his memoir that they parted “as amicably as two people could.” Guilfoyle later joined Fox News, became engaged to Donald Trump Jr., and served as US ambassador to Greece.
Children
Newsom and Siebel Newsom have four children. Montana Tessa was born in 2009, named for the state where her parents married and for Newsom’s late mother. Hunter was born in 2011, Brooklynn Stacia in 2013, and Dutch William in February 2016, as People reported. Dutch’s name comes from Dutch Flat, the town where Newsom spent much of his childhood at his father’s home, and from his father, William.
Newsom has said public life is hard on the children. “Other days, ‘I can’t believe you did this to me,'” he told Bloomberg Originals in February 2026, describing their reactions. He said one of their daughters had to be taken out of school and homeschooled, and the family held her eighth-grade graduation in their living room. “That’s on me,” he said.
The family lived in Kentfield, in Marin County, from 2012. After he became governor, they bought a home in Fair Oaks, near Sacramento, for $3.7 million in 2019 and sold the Marin house for $5.9 million in August 2021.
Parents and Family
Newsom’s mother, Tessa Menzies, had breast cancer for years and chose a doctor-assisted death in 2002, at 55. He was with her, holding her hand. Assisted dying was not yet legal in California; the End of Life Option Act took effect in 2016. “I was proud we changed the law in California,” he said on The Diary of a CEO. He and his sister raise money for cancer research in her name through a PlumpJack foundation.
His father, William Newsom, ran for office himself, served as an appeals court judge and was a close friend of the Getty family. Newsom writes that his father rarely showed affection, even on the night he was elected governor. William Newsom died in San Francisco in December 2018, weeks before his son was sworn in as governor.
Timeline
October 10, 1967: Born in San Francisco.
1971: His parents divorce.
1985: Graduates from Redwood High School in Larkspur.
1989: Graduates from Santa Clara University.
May 14, 1991: PlumpJack Associates is formed.
1992: The first PlumpJack wine shop opens.
1996: Joins the San Francisco Parking and Traffic Commission.
1997: Appointed to the Board of Supervisors.
December 2001: Marries Kimberly Guilfoyle.
2002: His mother, Tessa, dies.
January 8, 2004: Sworn in as mayor of San Francisco.
February 2004: Orders same-sex marriage licenses.
August 2004: The California Supreme Court voids the licenses.
February 28, 2006: Divorce from Guilfoyle is finalized.
February 2007: Admits an affair and says he will seek treatment for alcohol use.
November 2007: Re-elected mayor with over 72% of the vote.
July 26, 2008: Marries Jennifer Siebel in Montana.
2009: Daughter Montana is born.
January 10, 2011: Sworn in as lieutenant governor.
2011: Son Hunter is born.
February 7, 2013: Publishes Citizenville.
2013: Daughter Brooklynn is born.
February 2016: Son Dutch is born.
December 2018: His father, William, dies.
January 7, 2019: Sworn in as governor of California.
November 6, 2020: Attends the French Laundry dinner.
September 14, 2021: Defeats the recall.
November 2022: Re-elected governor with 59.2%.
June 9, 2025: California files Newsom v. Trump over the National Guard.
November 4, 2025: Voters approve Proposition 50.
February 24, 2026: Publishes Young Man in a Hurry.
June 15, 2026: Says the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife.
September 2026: Grand jury subpoenas seek six years of travel and spending records.
October 10, 2026: Turns 59.
January 2027: His second term ends.
Net Worth
Gavin Newsom’s net worth is estimated at $11–15 million. Most of it comes from the wine and hospitality business he started in 1991, not from his government salary.
Tax returns covering 2021 to 2024, released in July 2026, showed he and his wife earned between $1.7 million and $2 million a year, most of it from winery and hospitality investments held in a blind trust, according to Sinclair’s national desk. His governor’s salary added about $200,000 a year, and he reported $70,000 and $75,000 in author income for 2023 and 2024. His 2019 disclosure listed two winery companies, Airelle Wines and Villa Encinal Partners, at more than $1 million each, and the family home in Fair Oaks cost $3.7 million.
That puts him above former Vice President Kamala Harris, whose household Forbes valued at about $8 million in 2024, but nowhere near Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Hyatt heir Fortune put at $3.9 billion. If he runs for president, his finances will get a much closer look, and leaving office in January 2027 opens the door to speaking fees and book income.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Gavin Newsom’s wife?
Gavin Newsom’s wife is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the founder of The Representation Project. They married on July 26, 2008, in Stevensville, Montana.
Who was Gavin Newsom’s first wife?
His first wife was Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor and Fox News host. They married in December 2001 and divorced in February 2006.
How many children does Gavin Newsom have?
He has four children with Jennifer Siebel Newsom: Montana, Hunter, Brooklynn and Dutch, born between 2009 and 2016.
How old is Gavin Newsom?
Gavin Newsom is 59. He was born on October 10, 1967, in San Francisco.
Who are Gavin Newsom’s parents?
His parents were William Alfred Newsom III, an appeals court judge, and Tessa Menzies, who raised him and his sister. His mother died in 2002 and his father in 2018.
What is Gavin Newsom’s net worth?
Gavin Newsom’s net worth is estimated at $11–15 million, built mainly on the PlumpJack wineries and hospitality business he started in 1991.
