In an interview on CNN’s The Axe Files podcast with David Axelrod, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said his ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle was a "different person" when they were married. He suggested she "fell prey" to right-wing disinformation campaigns on Fox News.
Newsom said Guilfoyle, who was working as a prosecutor in San Francisco when they got married, allowed the culture of Fox News to color her ambitious and prideful nature when she joined the network to host The Lineup in 2006.
Although The Lineup was eventually cancelled, Guilfoyle remained a regular contributor for the network. In 2011 she was picked as co-host of The Five and later Outnumbered.
Guilfoyle worked as a host on the show until 2018, when she left in the midst of a year-long investigation of a sexual harassment accusation against her—one of many at the Fox News network.
Guilfoyle began dating Donald Trump Jr. in 2018, marking a sharp rightward turn in both her personal life and her politics. The two became engaged in December 2020, though the news was not made public until January 2022.
Audio of Newsom's podcast remarks is below.
Reflecting on his relationship with Guilfoyle, Newsom said:
"She was a different person. She’s whip smart, and she fell prey, I think, to the culture at Fox in a deep way."
"She would disagree with that assessment. She’d perhaps suggest she found the light.”
Newsom joked, “Well, I’m very busy," when asked if he'd been invited to Guilfoyle's wedding to Trump Jr.
Many couldn't help but concur with Newsom's assessment or comment on Guilfoyle's political transformation.
Guilfoyle has not commented on Newsom's remarks.
After leaving Fox News, Guilfoyle joined the pro-Trump super PAC America First Policies to campaign for Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections.
She served as a Trump surrogate and adviser on the campaign trail in 2018 and 2020, embracing election conspiracies furthered by her soon-to-be father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, during the latter election.
She is reportedly not popular with the Trumps, and a 2019 profile of Ivanka Trump in The Atlantic revealed that Guilfoyle was not invited to a family Thanksgiving dinner and that the elder Trump had openly commented on her attractiveness.
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