California Governor Gavin Newsom’s characterizations of his humble origins have recently raised eyebrows, given his family’s ties to the late billionaire heir Gordon Getty.
During a recent appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast, Newsom recounted how his mother, who divorced his father when he was young, hustled to make ends meet.
“My mom was 19, pregnant and divorced a few years later, with two kids,” he said on the podcast. “Came from no money and just hustled. You know, worked hard, grinding every single day. Two and a half jobs, no bulls-.”
“We had roommates all the time because she couldn’t afford the rent,” he continued. “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, the macaroni and cheese.”
Throughout his career, Newsom has shared similar stories implying that he grew up in poverty or the lower middle class, seemingly to be more relatable to voters. Over the summer, for example, he claimed to have slept on the couch while his sister slept in a hallway because their mother had to rent out the spare bedroom.
However, skeptics have pointed out that Newsom’s late father, William Newsom, a former associate justice on the California Court of Appeals, served as a high-profile attorney for Getty’s billion-dollar fortune. William was so involved with the Getty family that he even helped deliver the ransom payment during the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.
The elder Newsom previously explained that he was limited in helping Gavin’s mother financially due to his costly 1968 Senate run.
“I made a foolish mistake of putting my own money in it and losing,” he said, according to a 2003 San Francisco Chronicle article. “I had a huge deficit when it was over. I lost my law practice in the process. Things were unraveling. It took me quite a while to pull myself out financially. Tessa was working a number of jobs. Gavin had jobs after school.”
He later added, “I was around people of wealth, but I never had any money, nor did Gavin.”
Yet, after Gavin graduated from Santa Clara University, he launched a boutique winery, PlumpJack Group, with Getty’s financial backing.
“Anyone with more than an inch of curiosity would know that Governor Newsom was raised by his mother after her divorce from his father when he was 3 years old,” a Newsom spokesperson told The Post.
“He has talked about moving between two different worlds, but he was raised by a mother who worked three jobs at one point — secretary, waitress, and paralegal.”
Notably, Newsom attended kindergarten and first grade at École Notre Dame des Victoires, a Catholic school.
In August, Newsom trolled Vice President JD Vance by sharing a stylish photo purportedly of himself in high school wearing a fancy scarf, juxtaposed with a throwback picture of Vance in high school wearing a plain t-shirt, standing next to women posed in front of urinals.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/26/us-news/gavin-newsoms-story-about-hustling-to-pay-the-bills-raises-eyebrows-given-his-familys-ties-to-billionaire-heir/