Newsoms’ baby due in September
By: Brent Begin
Examiner Staff Writer
February 20, 2009
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| Whistleblower: Mayor Gavin Newsom, right, says he will not reveal anything about baby names until his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, left, gives the green light. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom released more details Thursday about his impending first born — and apologized to some members of his family that they heard the news via the media rather than from the happy couple.
News spread quickly Wednesday among media that Newsom, 41, and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 34, were expecting, yet many in the immediate family didn’t know, including Newsom’s father, Bill Newsom.
“Unfortunately, some gossip column in New York City leaked this, and so we didn’t announce it in the way we intended to, but such is the life of public service,” Newsom said Thursday outside City Hall. “I had to deal with my aunt. To my aunt Annie, I apologize for you watching it on TV last night. The point being that I hadn’t reached out to our extended family to let them know before everyone else found out.”
The baby, Newsom said, is due in September — “if everything goes well” — and he’s already scoping out a future babysitter.
“All I know is my mother-in-law is now my most important person outside of my wife, because I know how helpful she can be in giving me time to sleep,” the mayor said.
When pressed on names, Newsom said he wouldn’t reveal anything before his wife gave the green light.
“I have lots of preferences,” he said. “We have strange names in our family. I mean Hilary and Gavin, Tessa, my mother, so I wouldn’t expect it to be anything different. But, I got to negotiate with my wife. I can’t do that here.”
Newsom said the couple doesn’t know the gender of the baby. He wants to find out early, but must “negotiate” that point with his wife.
The mayor also said he’s anxious for advice. His sister, Hilary, has two girls.
“Any advice on diapers, any advice on feeding times, any advice on names, go to our Facebook,” Newsom said. “I’m ready to listen. Go to Twitter. All my Twitter friends are already giving me names and advice.”
As for whether the first couple would stay in their Russian Hill apartment when the baby is born, Newsom hinted that it would be difficult. “I’m not sure it’s big enough for two adults.”
Newsom met his wife, an actress, on a blind date in October 2006, and the couple married in July 2008. The baby comes at an interesting time for the newlyweds: Newsom is exploring a bid for governor in 2010 and is speaking at town-hall meetings throughout the state. And Siebel Newsom’s latest film, “The Trouble with Romance,” is scheduled to open in select theaters and come out on video at the end of the month.
Stock up on Huggies
Mayor Gavin Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom are expecting their first child.
Married: July 27, 2008, in Montana
First child: Due in September
Background: Couple met on a blind date in October 2006; marriage is the second for Newsom, 41, and the first for Siebel Newsom, a 34-year-old actress
