Kimberly Guilfoyle has faced darkness throughout her life, but that doesn't mean she's an angel.
From Fox News misconduct to her part in the insurrection, Guilfoyle has her own list of sins.
Kimberly Guilfoyle comes from a working-class immigrant background in San Francisco.
According to The Mercury News, her mother, Mercedes Marie Gerena,
was a teacher who moved to California from Puerto Rico.
Kimberly’s father, Anthony Guilfoyle, was an Irish immigrant who worked in construction
and real estate. Kimberly Guilfoyle said she and her mother were close, telling Mediaite:
"My mother was just everything to me. I loved her so much,
I always wanted to be around her. I loved how I saw people react to her."
Tragically, Gerena died of leukemia when her children were still young. Speaking about
her mother's illness and death, Guilfoyle told Mediaite that healing was a long and grueling
process. That early loss informed many of her decisions and motivations throughout her life.
“I had to really rely on that valuable time that I had with
my mom and the impressions she left on me.”
Although she eventually became known as a top prosecutor,
Kimberly Guilfoyle faced some challenges in her legal career. According to SFGate,
she had to work hard to be taken seriously in her field.
While attending the University of San Francisco, she modeled to pay for school,
a fact that her critics often used to belittle Guilfoyle. Her career
struggles started as early as her first professional legal position.
After graduating and briefly working as a teacher, Guilfoyle landed a job at the San
Francisco district attorney's office. It was an excellent opportunity at the same office where she
had interned during law school and could have been an exciting start to her career in her hometown.
Unfortunately, her time at the office ended prematurely when District Attorney Terence
Hallinan took over and promptly fired 14 deputy district attorneys, including Guilfoyle. Hallinan
replaced District Attorney Arlo Smith, whom Guilfoyle and many others had worked to reelect.
Hallinan was accused of discriminatory treatment for letting people go based on age, sex, race,
and political affiliation, though he denied these claims according to SFGate.
Upon losing her first position, Guilfoyle was forced to relocate
from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where she continued working in
the LA district attorney's office and built her reputation as a prosecutor.
Looking at Kimberly Guilfoyle's current political views and her zealous support of the Trumps,
it might come as a surprise that she was once married to Gavin Newsom,
the current Democratic governor of California.
Guilfoyle told The Mercury News that she's been a registered Republican since college,
but it seems she and Newsom put some of those differences aside. In the early 2000s,
they were seen as the next political power couple.
Harper's Bazaar even published an eight-page spread on the pair
via The Washington Post. Newsom was mayor of San Francisco at the time,
and Guilfoyle told the magazine that she'd quote, "gladly vote for him" if he ran for president.
However their marriage ended after just a few years and the pair announced their
split in January 2005. Guilfoyle's career in broadcast journalism was taking off,
causing her to divide her time between California and New York.
The couple said this distance was hard to overcome, writing in a statement:
"Unfortunately, the demands of our respective careers have made it too
difficult for us to continue as a married couple."
Though public statements claimed the divorce was amicable, the true reason may have been
more scandalous. It was later revealed that Newsom had an affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk,
his secretary according to People magazine. Their affair wasn't public knowledge until 2007,
but it reportedly occurred in 2005, when Guilfoyle and Newsom were going
through their divorce, linking her to the cheating scandal.
Kimberly Guilfoyle's career as an assistant district attorney gained national attention
when she was assigned as a prosecutor in a controversial dog mauling case. ABC News reported
on the 2001 case, in which a 120-pound dog mauled a woman to death right outside her apartment.
The mauling involved two dogs in the care of Robert Noel and Marjorie
Knoller. Noel and Knoller were husband and wife defense lawyers and neighbors of the victim.
The dogs were Canarios, a large mastiff breed. They'd originally belonged to Paul Schneider,
a convict the lawyers had become close to. But tragedy ensued when
Knoller lost control of the dogs, which attacked their neighbor.
As a prosecutor on the case, Guilfoyle charged Knoller with
second-degree murder. The high-profile case garnered much media attention,
and Guilfoyle received threats to her life, reportedly from Schneider, telling FoxNews:
"I had a contract out on my life to have me killed because they
didn't like the Puerto Rican lawyer that was prosecuting these people.”
After her divorce from Gavin Newsom, Kimberly Guilfoyle was quick to remarry in May 2006.
However, she steered clear of politicians in her second union, instead marrying Eric Villency, the
president and chief executive of Maurice Villency, a furniture company founded by his grandfather.
The pair had a son, Ronan, but split in 2009. Speaking to Mediaite about her divorces,
Guilfoyle said that in marriage, it's important to not be afraid of
admitting it isn’t working. Unfortunately, things didn't work between them either,
but Guilfoyle said she maintains a good relationship with her ex-husband. Even
though they’re divorced, Guilfoyle says she’s still very close with Villency’s family, adding:
"Even when people don't stay married, they can still be a family together… When you go
through divorce with children, you don't make it about you."
Speaking about the short marriage, divorce lawyer Christina Previte told The List it's unlikely
Guilfoyle got much of a settlement because quote, "most of Villency's wealth was premarital."
The lawyer added it was quote, "unlikely she got much financially
from her husbands in terms of property distribution." But, on the positive side,
the pair left the relationship amicably, and they have their son to show for it.
Kimberly Guilfoyle became a household name through her time as a Fox News
personality. It was during co-hosting the network's panel show, "The Five,"
that she rose to prominence within the Republican Party.
She also began dating Donald Trump Jr. at this time. Her stardom was clearly on the
rise until it was abruptly announced that she would be leaving the network in 2018.
Fox remained vague about the circumstances of her departure. The New York Times quoted
their brief statement saying they had "parted ways with Kimberly Guilfoyle."
But the true nature of her dismissal may be more sinister. Guilfoyle
denies any claims of wrongdoing and maintains she left Fox voluntarily,
but others report she was fired. According to an investigation by The New Yorker,
a former assistant accused Guilfoyle of workplace misconduct, leading to her sudden departure.
The assistant wrote a 42-page draft complaint about Guilfoyle, which was never legally filed,
but, if true, it paints a rather grim picture of Guilfoyle. Among other things,
the draft complaint accuses Guilfoyle of being naked in front of her assistant,
showing her assistant sexually explicit photos, and demanding a massage of her bare thighs.
The assistant also claims that when outside lawyers were brought in to investigate sexual
misconduct at Fox, Guilfoyle offered hush money. These allegations never
went to court, but Fox did pay the assistant an undisclosed sum, presumably to avoid trial.
Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. began dating in 2018 and were
engaged in 2022. The couple seems like a perfect match especially considering
what a loud supporter Guilfoyle has been of the Trump administration.
“I think that’s benefiting from your dad’s presidency but not that my opinion matters.”
But sources say the feeling has not always been mutual,
and there are many rumors the Trumps disapprove of the relationship. The Trumps' distaste for
Guilfoyle may go back to before she and Don Jr. started dating. Guilfoyle reportedly was
in talks for the White House press secretary role in 2017. But a former White House aide
told The Atlantic in 2019 that Guilfoyle wasn't seriously considered for the position, saying:
"Even [Donald Trump] can tell the difference between the attractive women on Fox who have
a little bit of substance, and those who will be derided as airheads.”
Another source told The Atlantic that there was continued disapproval after
Guilfoyle attended a White House Fourth of July party with Don Jr.
The couple drew so much press attention that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump felt
overlooked. Don Jr. was told he would need approval for guests in the future.
But, from all appearances, Guilfoyle and Don Jr. are in it for the long haul,
and the rest of the family will have to adjust. With rumors circulating about
the family's disapproval, Eric Trump spoke to Page Six to put them to rest, adding:
"I completely disagree with the narrative and happen to think the world of Kimberly.”
As a die-hard Trump supporter and partner of Donald Trump Jr.,
Kimberly Guilfoyle was heavily involved in the 2020 reelection campaign. She was
appointed the president's national finance chair and gave an impassioned speech at the
2020 Republican National Convention, which quickly became a political meme.
It seems her fervor for Trump's presidency remained even after he
lost the 2020 run. In March 2022, Forbes reported that Guilfoyle was
being subpoenaed for her role in the January 6 insurrection.
The deadly insurrection occurred on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol
while Congress was in the process of affirming Joe Biden as the president of the United States.
Directly preceding the riot, Trump supporters gathered for
a "Stop the Steal" rally. Many point to this rally as inciting the riot,
and Guilfoyle's role in planning the event was called into question. The
January 6 committee tweeted that Guilfoyle was subpoenaed due to evidence that she was:
"In direct contact with key individuals, raised funds for the rally immediately
preceding the violent attack on the Capitol, and participated in that event."
Guilfoyle also gave a short introductory speech at the rally,
for which she was reportedly paid $60,000.
"We will continue to stand for President Trump, stand with him and for this country."