What tragedy shaped Kimberly Guilfoyle in her youth? And what led to her controversial
exit from Fox News? Keep watching for those stories and more tragic details about this
polarizing public figure.
Religious values ruled the Guilfoyle home in San Francisco, where Kimberly was born
on March 9, 1969. Much of that was due to her mother Mercedes, a Puerto Rican special
education teacher, and her construction worker father Anthony, both staunch Catholics.
Kimberly Guilfoyle quickly picked up on how those ethics garnered respectability. She
said she noticed how people looked up to her mother, determined to ensure her handicapped
students received the best education possible. Understandably, at the age of 11, she was
particularly devastated when her mother died in 1980 after a lengthy battle with leukemia.
But even back then, Kimberly felt if she could get through such a personal tragedy, she might
be able to help other suffering people do the same.
Relying on support and guidance from her father, Guilfoyle finished school, got her degree
from the University of San Francisco School of Law while modeling on the side, and continued
her studies in Ireland. According to SFGate, She returned home and chose teaching as a
career, just like her mother, until her professional path suddenly changed.
In 1996, Kimberly Guilfoyle hadn't been teaching long before she was hired to become a deputy
district attorney in San Francisco. According to SFGate, she had interned at the same office
a few years early while studying for her law degree, but this time, she'd get a taste of
what it would be like as a professional in the legal system. At best, it was bittersweet.
Guilfoyle was only on the job for a few months when she and 13 other deputies were fired
in the wake of an ugly district attorney election pitting their current boss against an aggressive
rival. The incumbent lost and the new D.A. in charge cleaned house, ignoring a grievance
filed by some of the dismissed deputies. Meanwhile, Guilfoyle eventually found a similar position
in Los Angeles, where she worked for four years.
"It's actually how I got my start in television, because after doing that…" "...then I got
the call to come work in television."
In the early 2000s, Guilfoyle was generating media scrutiny in San Francisco for her frequent
public appearances with city supervisor Gavin Newsom. The coupling seemed serious, at least
enough to warrant her marrying him in a high-society wedding in 2001. Two years later, when Newsom
threw his hat into the mayoral ring, Guilfoyle dutifully quit her district attorney job to
support his campaign that put him into office in 2003.
But while Newsom ran City Hall, Guilfoyle grew restless and after being seduced by the
media in recent years, took a broadcasting job at Court TV in New York. The geographic
distance proved too great to sustain a marriage and by 2005, the couple amicably split. While
Newsom, now California's Governor, wouldn't remarry for another three years, Guilfoyle
leapt into the nuptial ring in 2006 by marrying designer Eric Villency. Three years later,
the couple filed for divorce. Guilfoyle and Villency remain friends and share a son, Ronan.
To this day, Guilfoyle bears no animosity over those experiences, telling Mediaite:
"With marriages, people can take the easy way out and grow apart. Or you can show respect
and loyalty and that's what I've tried to do in all my relationships. I leave no friend
behind."
In 2006, Kimberly Guilfoyle left Court TV for Fox News. She originally hosted a crime-based
series called The Lineup, before joining a table of pundits on the popular show The Five.
Her presence seemed to be for more than her political insight. Co-host Bob Beckel asked
in one segment that was reprinted in Mediaite:
"If those legs of yours were a foot shorter, do you think you'd be here?"
Perhaps she bought into that objectification or let success get to her head. Regardless,
rumors of inappropriate behavior on her behalf started circulating to the point where a Fox
internal investigation resulted in her departure in 2018. Two years later, The New Yorker published
a piece about those allegations from sources speaking on condition of anonymity.
One of them was an assistant who recalled working with Guilfoyle in her apartment where
her boss sometimes stripped, showed off graphic pictures of former lovers and requested thigh
massages. She added that Guilfoyle threatened her job should any word of those incidents
get out. Guilfoyle said in a statement to The New Yorker:
"In my 30-year career working for the SF District Attorney's Office, the LA District Attorney's
Office, in media and in politics, I have never engaged in any workplace misconduct of any
kind."
By then, she was already on another career path.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit
the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
While details of Kimberly Guilfoyle's departure from Fox are foggy at best, her arrival into
the Trump world was an open buffet for the media. In 2018, she fell for the Commander-in-Chief's
oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., before quitting her job to work on Donald Trump's re-election
campaign. The pairing was puzzling, considering who Guilfoyle had chosen to date previously.
It wasn't long before media wags like The Washington Post reported the two were dating,
even though Don Jr was still separated from his wife Vanessa at the time. Don Jr. told
The Daily Mail:
"We're having a great time. She's brilliant, exciting, fun."
An extensive piece in The Atlantic, however, revealed that a few Trumps weren't excited
by the romance, especially Donald Trump Sr. Don Jr.'s father thought the pairing distracted
from his re-election campaign, which was less than two years away. Also reportedly less
than thrilled was the then-President's daughter Ivanka, long touted as his favorite successor,
who apparently felt upstaged by Guilfoyle and Don Jr.'s presence at public gatherings.
It didn't help that a McClatchy dispatch declared Don Jr. was already eclipsing Ivanka's work
in getting their famous father re-elected.
By 2020, Kimberly Guilfoyle had positioned herself well into the Trump campaign machine.
She was already chairing the finance part of the Trump Victory Committee and frequently
accompanied boyfriend Donald Trump Jr. to rallies across the U.S. Although the country
was still in the grips of a COVID-19 pandemic, Guilfoyle was rarely seen in public at these
events wearing a mask or physically distancing herself from colleagues.
In July 2020, Guilfoyle tested positive for the coronavirus, which at that point had already
infected nearly three million Americans and killed more than 130,000 others. Inexplicably,
after two uncomfortable weeks in quarantine fighting the infection, she credited fellow
Republicans for her recovery. Guilfoyle said during a campaign broadcast:
"When I tested positive for COVID, I too was able to see just how loving and supportive
this MAGA movement is."
His girlfriend's bout with the coronavirus did little to dissuade Don Jr. from downplaying
the effects of the pandemic. Speaking on Fox News about his opposition to the death toll,
Don Jr. had this to say:
"These people… these people are truly morons." "Because the number is almost nothing."
Months later, both Don Jr. and President Trump tested positive for COVID-19, but maintained
that the pandemic's effects on the U.S. was minimal.
Kimberly Guilfoyle's climb to the top of the Republican social ladder hit a crescendo at
the 2020 Republican National Convention. On the night of August 24, she made sure her
six-minute speech would be heard. It was a bombastic performance, taking aim at the Democrat
Party's plans to destroy the country, and treating President Trump more as a god than
a national leader. Guilfoyle impressed the president with her dramatic closing:
"The best. Is yet. To come!"
Comparing Guilfoyle to Eva Peron, he reportedly told her:
"Nobody could have done that but you."
However, several advisors to the President were less than impressed, with one person
allegedly saying, "Kimberly shouting is weird," according to SFGate. Elsewhere, results were
mixed. The New York Post called Guilfoyle's speech passionate and that it was "making
waves on social media." Meanwhile, Intelligencer called the cameo, quote, "six terrifying minutes."
The View co-host Sunny Hostin felt compelled to correct the celebrity speaker, who declared
herself a first-generation Puerto Rican. Hostin tweeted:
"Puerto Ricans are American last I checked. I'm horrified. And embarrassed as a fellow
Latina."
CNN political commentator Alice Stewart said Guilfoyle's goal was obvious. Stewart said
on CNN:
"The reality is she's speaking to an audience of one, President Trump. I'm sure she got
two thumbs up for that."
In November 2020, Kimberly Guilfoyle's ascent to the top of the political heap was put on
hold when Donald Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden. After the election,
Donald Trump made multiple unverified claims that the results were fraudulent, and Kimberly
went to work campaigning to raise funds for a January 6 rally in Washington D.C., apparently
raising as much as $3 million.
The rally at the Ellipse took place the same day Vice President Mike Pence was to oversee
the certification of the election result in Congress a few blocks away. Before Trump spoke
to the masses gathering to dissuade Pence, Guilfoyle was captured on Don Jr.'s phone
dancing and urging the vice president to:
"Have the courage and do the right thing! Fight!"
A few hours later after Trump's "fight like hell" speech, supporters invaded Capitol Hill
in an insurrection that killed five people and injured dozens more. It didn't stop the
political process, and the election results were certified.
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