By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-05 18:03:29 | Updated at 2026-08-05 20:58:15
3 hours ago
It was the age gap relationship that scandalized San Francisco: the recently divorced 'Mayor McHottie' paired with a 19-year-old college student who was spotted at a political event clutching a glass of wine.
Gavin Newsom was 38 when he was first linked to a teenage Brittanie Mountz, with the 2006 episode marking yet another scandalous moment in the colorful love life of the California Governor, who has been touted as a potential presidential candidate.
His spicy relationship history has come under scrutiny over the past week thanks to the bombshell tell-all penned by former lover Ruby Rippey-Gibney.
But while the now 58-year-old was forced to cop to 'a lapse in judgment' over his fling with Rippey-Gibney, her fresh-faced successor also proved to be politically damaging to the then Mayor of San Francisco.
Despite the relationship only lasting a few months, the couple were dubbed 'Mountsome,' and controversy swirled over Mountz changing her age from 19 to 26 on her now-defunct MySpace page.
Teenager Mountz, according to the San Francisco Chronicle at the time, was spotted with a glass of wine during a reception – prompting a terse response from Newsom's office that 'if she was drinking, the mayor didn't notice.' The photo of her with a wine glass in one hand with her other arm around Newsom has since been pulled back.
Now, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that 39-year-old Mountz has chosen a life away from the political spotlight post Newsom. She is happily shacked up with a handsome Mexican actor.
She has also legally changed her name from Brittanie to Rae and works as a couples and relationship therapist, offering online appointments in the Bay Area while she is spending most of her time in her partner's home country.
Gavin Newsom, now the governor of California, dated then-19-year-old college student Brittanie Mountz back in 2006. They are pictured arriving together at the San Francisco Symphony's season opener
Controversy swirled at the time after a then teenage Brittanie Mountz was spotted with a glass of wine during a reception despite being underage. She is pictured above at an event in San Francisco in 2012
Her new love is Mexican actor Andrés B Durán, 34, on whose social media pages she regularly appears, often seen curled up in his bed or playing with the couple's pet dogs.
Durán shot to fame in his native country in 2017 when he starred in LGBTQ themed podcast series Con Lugar and, more recently, appeared in Apple TV crime drama Archivo Muerto.
But it hasn't all been smooth sailing for Mountz, who endured an excruciating divorce of her own in 2022.
Court papers exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail show she went through a painful split from former husband, fellow therapist Bryan Newman, after a marriage that lasted just 18 months.
According to the documents, the split was initiated by Newman in October 2021 citing irreconcilable differences and signed off in April 2022 by a Contra Costa County judge.
The divorce also saw both sides agree to waive spousal support and walk away with only the possessions they brought into the marriage.
The couple's cat, Rollo, was handed to Newman who has since relocated back to his native New Jersey from the Bay Area.
Mountz, who was a student studying psychotherapy at Sonoma State University when she met Newsom, has never spoken about her high-profile fling and did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment.
Now, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that 39-year-old Mountz has chosen a life away from the political spotlight post Newsom. She has legally changed her name from Brittanie to Rae and works as a couples and relationship therapist
She is happily shacked up with 34-year-old Mexican actor Andrés B. Durán and spends most of her time in his home country
Mountz, who was a student studying psychotherapy at Sonoma State University when she met Newsom, has never spoken about her high-profile fling. She is pictured with her new flame Andrés B. Durán
Newsom, too, has left his controversial age-gap fling in the past – Mountz not even meriting a mention in Newsom's memoir – and is now married to glamorous former actress, Jennifer Siebel, with whom he has four children.
Newsom's love life has come under scrutiny over the past week thanks to a bombshell tell-all penned by one-time mistress Ruby Rippey-Gibney (pictured above)
Just how much the fling with Newsom impacted Mountz is unknown, but she does speak – much like Rippey-Gibney – of enduring past trauma in a biography on her therapy website.
'People often ask how I became a therapist. My answer is usually personal: my own inner suffering and unresolved relational trauma - and the symptoms that came with it - led me to study psychology and begin my own therapy,' she writes.
'Both experiences brought me profound relief, healing, and encouragement.'
'As I recovered my dignity, self-esteem, and sense of agency through therapy, I felt deeply compelled to dedicate my life to this work. I wanted to become someone people felt safe enough to speak honestly with, heal alongside, and grow with in meaningful ways,' Mountz continued.
Newsom, whose first wife was MAGA firebrand Kimberly Guilfoyle, has come under fire over his past after Rippey-Gibney, now 54, unloaded on the California Democrat in a bombshell Vanity Fair article.
An old interview of Gavin Newsom, then 38, exploding at a news reporter (pictured above) who grilled him about allegedly giving alcohol to 19-year-old Mountz
Newsom, for his part, has left his controversial age-gap fling in the past and is now married to glamorous former actress, Jennifer Siebel, with whom he has four children
She had a passionate fling with Newsom in 2005 behind the back of her then-husband Alex Tourk – who also worked as Newsom's campaign manager – which ended in her divorce and the two men's friendship going up in flames.
Newsom had attempted to play down the affair in his memoir Young Man in a Hurry, but Rippey-Gibney hit back, accusing the slick-haired 58-year-old of 'sanitizing' the romance and copping to multiple sexual encounters with the dad-of-four on numerous occasions.
She also lashed out at Newsom's version of events in which he was the one to confess the affair to Tourk, writing: 'That detail - subtle but significant - is the one that stays with me.
'It reads - to me, at least - as a version of events that gives him credit for something I had already done.
'Technically defensible, perhaps, but one that leaves the unmistakable impression that he, not I, was the one who told Alex the truth.'
Newsom's office has said he has no further comment to make on the episode with Rippey-Gibney.
Mountz and Newman have not responded to the Daily Mail's requests for comment.
