Gavin Newsom says he never went to rehab for alcohol, still drinks occasionally
In 2007, Gavin Newsom said he quit drinking and would seek professional help for "problems with alcohol."apologized at a news conference, saying the affair "is something that I have to live with and something that I am deeply sorry for. I am also sorry that I've let the people of San Francisco down."
Though he didn't say explicitly at the time that he went to rehab, it was widely interpreted that he did. Uncorrected media accounts over the past decade report that he entered a rehab program, and spokespeople at the time sought to explain to the public Newsom's drinking.
In a recent interview with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, Newsom, now 50, said he has resumed drinking occasionally after a period of abstinence and never went to rehab.
"No, there's no rehab. I just stopped," he said. "There was no treatment, no nothing related to any of that stuff. I stopped because I thought it was a good thing to stop."
When he was 39 and mayor of San Francisco, Newsom talked about his drinking problems days after he admitted to an affair with the wife of his campaign manager and best friend, Alex Tourk. The woman, who is now remarried and goes by Ruby Rippey-Gibney, was a subordinate of Newsom's and worked in City Hall as his appointments secretary. She also had substance abuse problems, she said at the time.
A close personal friend and counselor to Newsom said that he'd spiraled out out of control and was "self-sabotaging" himself.
More than a decade later, Newsom says he has grown and learned from the very public scandal that threatened to end his political career.
The partner in three wineries said he drinks wine on occasion and has for the past eight or nine years. In the interview, he dismissed questions about whether he has "problems with alcohol" as he said he did in 2007, saying, "No, no."
The affair and Newsom's drinking bled into his public life and grew into political scandal that tarnished the polished yet rebellious image he'd cultivated as the young, handsome mayor who wasn't afraid to buck the Democratic Party establishment.
Early in his tenure, he gained celebrity status in the liberal Bay Area after ordering City Hall to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, against the law at the time.
Since then, Newsom's affair and the political turmoil surrounding it have become part of his redemption story.
"Sometimes people make mistakes in their lives and you then work hard never to make them again, because you learn from them. I've never made them again and I've learned from it, and it led ultimately to falling in love with Jen," Newsom said, referring to his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
In February 2007, Newsom
Four days later, he announced he'd seek treatment for alcohol abuse.
"My problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment," Newsom said in a statement widely quoted in news reports. "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."
The New York Times reported in February 2007 that he planned to "begin outpatient treatment at a local rehabilitation program." The San Francisco Examiner reported in February 2008 that he went to an "outpatient rehabilitation program." A 2015 profile in The New Yorker titled "Gavin Newsom's Long, Long Campaign for Governor" said he "went into rehab."
In a previous incident at San Francisco General Hospital, witnesses said Newsom showed up to "where a police officer had been taken after being mortally wounded" and "appeared to have been drinking," the Chronicle wrote.
Newsom, who was re-elected to his second mayoral term during the aftermath of the scandal, declined to say whether he ever sought to correct the record when news outlets reported he'd gone to rehab.
He told The Sacramento Bee that he sought counseling back then from Mimi Silbert, president of the Delancey Street Foundation, a nonprofit rehabilitation center in San Francisco that specializes in substance abuse treatment and helps ex-convicts and homeless people.
"Mimi called me and ... she said, 'You and I are going to spend every night in the next few weeks together,' " Newsom said. "She said, 'I want you to stop drinking. I want a reset in your life. I want to spend time, what the hell's going on?' "
Newsom called Silbert "one of the most extraordinary, important human beings in my life," who was "profoundly influential in helping me get through that." He said he'd recently been divorced. His mom passed away, and he suggested he was feeling the pressure of being mayor.
Silbert told The Sacramento Bee in an interview that Newsom attended Delancey Street Foundation roughly once a week for three years for personal and group therapy. Though it is not a traditional rehabilitation program, Silbert said she requires that participants abstain from using all drugs and alcohol.
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