FILE PHOTO: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at the Center for American Progress (CAP) IDEAS Conference at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has broken his silence on his ex-wife's abrupt exit from a high-profile Trump administration post.
Speaking with CBS News' Jared Ochacher on Saturday while campaigning for Democrats in New Hampshire, Newsom called the situation surrounding the Trump administration's removal of Kimberly Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece "unfortunate." He said he had not talked to Guilfoyle in some time and wished her the best.
"I don't know enough about it. I haven't talked to her in a while," Newsom said. "I just wish her the best, and I don't have much, honestly, much more to say on it. It's unfortunate."
Guilfoyle stepped down Tuesday after former White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia announced at her first (and last) press briefing that the administration had asked the ambassador to resign. A day earlier, President Donald Trump told reporters he was weighing whether to fire her, adding, "We're not happy," The Associated Press reported.
Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing, but her ouster came after she was accused of trying to trade access for cash. Messages surfaced in reporting by The Wall Street Journal that appear to show her urging Trump donor Eric Deters to quietly cover a $100,000 credit card bill while she awaited Senate confirmation.
Newsom has mostly steered clear of commenting on Guilfoyle since their 2006 divorce. When she trashed California in her 2020 Republican National Convention speech, he told reporters he would "respectfully defer" to the next question, according to Fox News. In a 2023 interview, he said she had become a different person from the woman he married, Yahoo News reported.
In happier times, Newsom and Guilfoyle were the subjects of a 2004 Harper's Bazaar spread that dubbed them "The New Kennedys." Its most memorable image showed the couple in formalwear, sprawled across a rug in the Getty family's San Francisco mansion, and the photo has resurfaced repeatedly online.
He revisited the marriage in a memoir this year, writing that he knew it was doomed after he allowed same-sex couples to wed in San Francisco in 2004, the Irish Star reported, citing The Daily Mail.
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host, was engaged to Donald Trump Jr. until late 2024, shortly before Trump nominated her to the Greece post.
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