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Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing renewed backlash over characterizing his childhood as financially difficult despite cozy ties to one of the most prominent and wealthy families in the world: the Gettys.
“People assume Newsom comes from money. He doesn’t. Access, yes. Privilege, yes. Money, no. The most compelling aspect of Newsom’s biography is his schizophrenic upbringing, vis-à-vis wealth,” a profile published in Vogue Sunday that also previewed an upcoming memoir from Newsom. “After his parents’ divorce, his father seems not to have provided much financial support. Tessa Newsom, née Menzies, scrambled to keep the family afloat.”
“Young Gavin chipped in, picking up a newspaper route and a job as a busboy. They took in foster kids because the government stipend helped pay the rent. Meanwhile, there were the Gettys,” Vogue continued before launching into the Newsom family ties to the powerful Getty family, an American dynasty built on oil.
Newsom’s memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,” is slated for release Feb. 24. Vogue spotlighted him in a lengthy profile published Sunday, featuring photos by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. Newsom is widely viewed as a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2028, and he’s set to leave office in 2027 as California’s term-limited governor.
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“Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address,” the Vogue article kicks off on the prominent Democrat and longtime political foe of President Donald Trump.
Conservative critics unleashed on Newsom attempting to portray himself as having a struggling childhood when his father worked as a “consigliere” — or trusted advisor — for the Getty family, with Gordon Getty, son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, taking Gavin Newsom and his sister, Hilary, on vacations to Kenya or Canada.
Newsom’s family ties to the Gettys have long been in the background of his career, including Gordon Getty helping bankroll Newsom’s PlumpJack Group, a hospitality company that includes Northern California wineries.
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Gordon “Getty, a billionaire heir to the J. Paul Getty oil fortune, used to include Gavin and his sister, Hilary, on Getty family vacations to watch whales in Canada and elephants in Kenya,” The New Yorker magazine reported in 2004.
The profile chronicled that Newsom’s father, Bill, was a close friend with Gordon Getty. Bill Newsom worked as an attorney for the Getty family and was the lawyer charged with dispatching to Italy in 1973, armed with ransom money, to recover John Paul Getty III after he was kidnapped.
John Paul Getty III was recovered alive after one of the most infamous kidnappings ever to hit an American dynasty.
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Bill Newsom became friends with Gordon Getty, and his brother Paul Getty, as youth while they attended San Francisco Catholic prep school St.Ignatius, according to the 2004 profile.
“I think of Gavin as a son,” Gordon Getty told The New Yorker at the time.
Conservatives reflected on Newsom’s close ties to the Gettys in their criticisms of the governor.
“What a joke this whole act is,” Steve Hilton, who is running as a Republican to serve as California governor, said of the profile, according to the New York Post. “There’s no better example of elitist privilege than Gavin Newsom. Look at his family and his connections, going back generations. In any other country you’d call it aristocracy.”
“You really can’t make this up. From the new Vogue profile of Gavin Newsom,” conservative columnist Byron York posted to X before quoting Vogue. “Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence…lithe, ardent, energetic, a glimmer of optimism in his eye; Kennedy-esque. Add to that his stunning wife and four adorable kids, and the executive strut of a self-made millionaire.”
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“Gavin Newsom thinks the hallmark of being poor is not affording Wonder bread. He’s so disconnected that he doesn’t even know how to fake being poor,” another critic posted to X.
“Governor who’s spent years polishing a national image now rolling out a memoir about his own hardships is the kind of self‑portrait only the political‑celebrity class could take seriously & the backlash shows voters are tired of being sold struggle by someone who’s never lived it,” another posted.
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Newsom has previously faced criticisms from conservatives for claiming he faced a financially-difficult childhood after his parents divorced when he was two, including in 2025 when he said his mom “came from no money and just hustled” with “two and a half jobs” to make ends meet for him and his sister.
“It was also about paying the bills, man. It was just like hustling, and so I was out there, kind of raising myself, turning on the TV, just getting obsessed. I was sitting there with the Wonder Bread,” Newsom said on the “All the Smoke” podcast.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment Monday but did not immediately receive a reply.
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