Jennifer Siebel Newsom is no stranger to the limelight. The documentary filmmaker and politician’s wife spent years as an actress in Hollywood before linking up with California’s top lawmaker. But her husband’s booming political aspirations combined with her own role in a high-profile celebrity criminal trial have put Siebel Newsom back in the spotlight.
She grew up in a suburb outside the city and was the second oldest of five girls. When she was six years old, her eldest sister Stacey, 8, was killed in a golf cart accident while the family was on vacation in Hawaii, she told The Marin Independent Journal in 2007. She told the outlet that she carried guilt for years.
“I tried to be two people, be perfect, because I didn’t feel like I was enough. ” In high school, Siebel Newsom was an active athlete, participating in varsity basketball, soccer, and tennis, according to the Journal. Following her 1996 graduation, Siebel Newsom went on to earn a Master’s in Business Administration in 2001, according to the governor’s website.
She also traveled the world with Conservation International, focusing on helping women in Africa and Latin America to start their own sustainable enterprises. She landed small roles in several movies and television series, including “Rent,” “Numbers,” and “Mad Men. ” She was even romantically linked to actor George Clooney at one time.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was serving as mayor of San Francisco when the two met. Siebel Newsom told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2007 that she knew little about her husband-to-be upon introduction, except that he was a politician with big goals.
“We had so much in common, we were blown away — from our love for Africa to our interests in political issues, to art and the wine business and college sports,” she told the outlet. Siebel Newsom stood by her partner in 2007 — just three months after the couple met — when Newsom’s campaign director, Alex Tourk, resigned after discovering that the mayor had previously had an affair with his wife , who worked as an aide in Newsom’s office. “I shouldn’t say this, but there are two sides to every story,” Siebel Newsom told SF Gate in 2007.
“If people did research into the scandal . . .
the woman is the culprit. Alex Tourk is a nice man and it saddens me that his wife did that to him. ” Siebel Newsom was once a Republican, according to SF Gate.
Newsom’s mayoral office told the outlet in 2008 that Siebel Newsom was at that time an independent voter. Newsom, himself, is a prominent Democratic politician in the country. Newsom proposed during a Hawaii trip, according to reports from the time.
The marriage was Siebel Newsom’s first and Newsom’s second — he was married to TV commentator and lawyer Kimberly Guilfoyle from 2001 to 2005. Guilfoyle is now engaged to Donald Trump Jr. Newsom and Siebel Newsom married at her parents’ ranch in Montana in July 2008.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among the ceremony’s high-profile attendees. The pair have four young children: Montana, Hunter, Brooklynn, and Dutch. She has written, directed, and produced several critically-acclaimed documentaries in the last decade, including “Miss Representation” and “The Mask You Live In,” which examine the media’s portrayal of women and toxic masculinity respectively.
Siebel Newsom also executive produced the Oscar-award nominated documentaries “The Invisible War” and “The Hunting Ground. ” She has since founded The Representation Project, which is a nonprofit focused on gender stereotypes and eradicating gender norms. Siebel Newsom publicly accused Weinstein of assault in an October 2017 HuffPost essay , soon after the start of the #MeToo movement.
“I was naive, new to the industry, and didn’t know how to deal with his aggressive advances ― work invitations with a friend late-night at The Toronto Film Festival, and later an invitation to meet with him about a role in The Peninsula Hotel, where staff were present and then all of a sudden disappeared like clockwork, leaving me alone with this extremely powerful and intimidating Hollywood legend,” she wrote at the time. Elizabeth Fegan, an attorney for Siebel Newsom, confirmed to Insider that her client plans to testify against Weinstein during the trial, which began this week. “Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” Fegan said.
“She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women. ” Three people familiar with the matter told The Los Angeles Times that Siebel Newsom is reportedly identified as “Jane Doe 4” in charging documents. Jane Doe 4 accused Weinstein of forcible rape in an incident sometime between September 2004 and September 2005, according to the outlet.
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From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/who-is-jennifer-siebel-newsom-gov-gavin-newsoms-wife-2022-10