Kimberly Guilfoyle

Early life and education

Guilfoyle was born in San Francisco on March 9, 1969. Her mother was Puerto Rican who had migrated from Aguadilla and her father was Irish. She was raised Catholic. She grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco and in Westlake, Daly City.

Guilfoyle's mother, Mercedes, taught special education. She died of leukemia when Guilfoyle was 11. Her father, Anthony "Tony" Guilfoyle, was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States in 1957 at the age of 20. In 1958, while still an Irish citizen, he was drafted and spent four years in the U.S. Army. After being discharged from the army, Tony Guilfoyle took up work in the construction trades. He later became a real estate investor. Until his death in 2008, he was a close advisor to his son-in-law Gavin Newsom, who was San Francisco mayor.

Guilfoyle graduated from San Francisco's Mercy High School, and then the University of California, Davis. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1994. While in law school, she interned at the San Francisco district attorney's office. She also was a lingerie and fashion model, featured in local department stores' advertising campaigns (including Macy's) and modeling Victoria's Secret lingerie for a bridal magazine. She later studied at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. While there, Guilfoyle published research in international children's rights and European Economic Community law.

Legal career

After law school, Guilfoyle taught in a public school district and briefly worked as a prosecutor in San Francisco. She lost her job in 1996 when Terence Hallinan was elected district attorney and fired 14 of the city's prosecutors. Guilfoyle worked for four years in Los Angeles as a deputy district attorney, serving on adult and juvenile cases. She received several awards at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, including Prosecutor of the Month.

In 2000, Guilfoyle was rehired by Hallinan in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, where she was an assistant district attorney from 2000 to 2004. During this time she obtained a conviction while co-prosecuting with James Hammer in the 2002 case People v. Noel and Knoller, a second-degree murder trial involving a dog mauling, which received international attention.

In 2003, by which time her then-husband Gavin Newsom was the front-runner in the 2003 San Francisco mayoral election, Guilfoyle publicly accused her fellow assistant District Attorney Kamala Harris (who was running in the 2003 election for district attorney) of being unwelcoming toward her. This accusation stemmed from a period years earlier, during Guilfoyle's re-hiring at the San Francisco district attorney's office. Harris denied this accusation. Guilfoyle did provide positive comments on Harris's qualifications for office; she called Harris someone who would "work very hard" if elected district attorney, as well as "very smart" and "a good speaker".

Media career

In 2014, she began hosting and then co-hosting Outnumbered for nearly 50 episodes, plus a few more appearances until June 2018. Guilfoyle also appeared weekly on the recurring segment "Is It Legal?" on The O'Reilly Factor until that show was canceled in 2017, and as a weekly Thursday guest on Brian Kilmeade's Kilmeade and Friends radio show. Guilfoyle guest-hosted Hannity, On the Record, Justice with Judge Jeanine, and Fox & Friends. [[File:Kimberly Guilfoyle (1).jpg|thumb|Guilfoyle in 2011]]

In mid-2017, Guilfoyle signed a long-term contract extension with Fox. In July 2018, she abruptly left Fox News and began working for a pro–Donald Trump super PAC. HuffPost reported that, at the time of her departure, the network had been in the midst of a year-long investigation of a sexual harassment accusation against Guilfoyle. Network officials had given Guilfoyle an ultimatum: Resign by the end of July or be fired. The New Yorker subsequently corroborated reports that Guilfoyle had been forced to resign rather than leaving by choice.

After Guilfoyle left, Fox News agreed to an out-of-court settlement with an assistant who had accused Guilfoyle of sexual harassment. Terms were not disclosed. The New Yorker reported that the settlement was at least $4 million. The assistant alleged that Guilfoyle frequently displayed herself naked, showed photographs of the genitalia of men she had sex with, and required her to sleep over at Guilfoyle's apartment. The New Yorker independently verified several of the assistant's allegations.

Work in politics

Early political activities

In 1995, Guilfoyle worked on the reelection campaign of district attorney Arlo Smith. Around this time, she was also a regular fixture at political fundraisers organized by oil billionaire Gordon Getty, whose son William she dated. (The timeline of Guilfoyle's relationship with Billy Getty is not publicly known.)

First Trump administration and 2020 re-election effort

In December 2016, it was reported that Guilfoyle was being considered for the position of press secretary for President-elect Trump. Sean Spicer was considered the front-runner for the position, and was ultimately selected. On the May 12, 2017, edition of The Five, co-host Bob Beckel hinted that Guilfoyle turned the job down. In an interview with Bay Area News Group on May 15, Guilfoyle confirmed she was in contact with the White House about the position following Spicer's resignation. She said: {{cquote|"I'm a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country. I think it'd be a fascinating job, it's a challenging job, and you need someone really determined and focused, a great communicator in there with deep knowledge to be able to handle that position."

In 2018, The Washington Post called Guilfoyle a "conservative cheerleader for President Trump". In 2019, Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. jointly toured school campuses, invited by venues such as the University of Florida, where they were paid $50,000 for their appearance from student activity fees, which led to complaints by anti-Trump students. At the event, two people were arrested and five were injured.

In 2020, Guilfoyle was reported to be the chair of the finance committee of the Trump Victory Committee. As of early 2020, the Trump campaign was secretly paying Guilfoyle $15,000 per month through the campaign manager's private company, Parscale Strategy. Guilfoyle served as a surrogate on the stump and took on broad advisory roles. In the Trump 2020 campaign, she managed a fund-raising division. This division paid socialite Somers Farkas to raise money. The fundraising division Guilfoyle managed was in internal turmoil amid departures of experienced staff and accusations of irresponsible spending. In November 2020, Politico reported that Guilfoyle had engaged in sexually explicit conversations during private Trump fundraisers that had made some attendees uncomfortable. Politico reported that many campaign insiders alleged that this was part of severe human resources problems that plagued the fundraising division, likely damaging the Trump campaign's ability to keep pace with the Biden campaign's fundraising.

At the Republican National Convention in August 2020, Guilfoyle gave a speech endorsing Trump that was widely described as unnecessarily loud or unhinged. Others in media described it as passionate. She was criticized for describing herself as a first generation American when her mother was from Puerto Rico and thus a U.S. citizen. She is a first-generation American on her father's side, as he immigrated to the United States from Ireland.

On January 6, 2021, Guilfoyle joined Trump, Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Eric Trump, and others on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., to address the "Save America March." This resulted in the attack on the Capitol. Having raised millions of dollars to support the rally, Guilfoyle was also involved in organizing the protest at the Capitol. She was paid $60,000 for her rally speech, lasting less than three minutes. Guilfoyle was featured in a video screened at the rally by Trump Jr., "break[ing] into the hip-shaking dance she's been showcasing at other recent pro-Trump rallies" and "tell[ing] Trump fans: 'Have the courage to do the right thing! Fight!'"

Trump 2024 campaign

Guilfoyle served on the platform committee of the 2024 Republican National Convention. She gave a speech at the convention. While the speech was delivered in a similar fashion to her derided 2020 convention speech, in 2024 convention her remarks were accompanied by positive responses from an in-person audience.

United States ambassador to Greece (2025–present)

On December 10, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Guilfoyle as the next United States Ambassador to Greece. In July 2025, Guilfoyle testified before, and was approved by, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

On September 18, 2025, the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination with a 51–47 vote. Her confirmation was confirmed through expeditious confirmation along with 48 other nominees.

On September 29, 2025, she was sworn in and became the first female Ambassador of the United States to the Hellenic Republic. She arrived in Greece on November 1, 2025, and she presented her credentials to the President of Greece, Konstantinos Tasoulas, on November 4, 2025.

Writing

In 2015, HarperCollins published Guilfoyle's semi-autobiographical advice book Making the Case: How to Be Your Own Best Advocate, which was based on her experiences growing up and working as a prosecutor.

In April 2024, Guilfoyle announced the upcoming publication of The Princess and her Pup, a children's book she wrote. It was pledged that ten percent of its sales were to benefit a nonprofit dedicated to animal welfare.

Personal life

In December 2001, she married Gavin Newsom, then a San Francisco city supervisor. They separated in 2004, and in January 2005, citing the strain of a bicoastal marriage, jointly filed for divorce. Their divorce was final on February 28, 2006, by which time Guilfoyle was already expecting a child with furniture heir Eric Villency.

On May 27, 2006, in Barbados, Guilfoyle married Villency. On October 4, she gave birth to their son, Ronan. Guilfoyle and Villency divorced in November 2009.

In June 2018, Vanessa Trump, who had filed for divorce from Donald Trump Jr. three months earlier, confirmed that Guilfoyle was dating Trump. In mid-2019, Guilfoyle and Trump jointly purchased a home in The Hamptons, priced at $4.4 million. They sold it in March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic for $8.14 million. Also in March 2021, the couple jointly purchased a $9.7 million home in Jupiter, Florida. Guilfoyle and Trump became engaged on December 31, 2020. The engagement was not made public until January 2022. Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. cohabited in their Jupiter residence from 2021 until it was put up for sale in 2025. After news reports of Trump Jr. dating another woman became public in late 2024, Guilfoyle and Trump mutually ended their romantic relationship.

Guilfoyle's 2017 departure from Fox News was due to alleged sexual harassment on her part. Fox News later reached a settlement of at least $4 million with Guilfoyle's accuser. Many other incidents of inappropriate and sexualized behavior have been alleged against Guilfoyle.Multiple sources:

Critics of President Trump have also associated Guilfoyle with a style of plastic surgery popular among figures associated with the Trump administration, popularly dubbed Mar-a-Lago face.

References

References

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