What Kimberly Guilfoyle Was Doing Before She Was In The Political World

As the financial chair of a fundraising organization for former President Donald Trump and the fiancée to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle has created a name for herself within Trump's inner circle. Even before she became associated with the conservative family, Guilfoyle was one-half of a liberal political power couple when she was married to then-San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, whom she divorced in 2006.

Despite her long history of political affiliations, Guilfoyle hasn't always worked in this partisan (or bipartisan) realm. Years prior to becoming a political fundraising finance chair and Fox News personality, Guilfoyle was an award-winning prosecutor based in California's Bay Area who broke into the national scene while handling a controversial dog mauling case in 2001.

Guilfoyle also worked as an attorney further south in Los Angeles, where she established herself as a detail-oriented, highly successful prosecutor with an astounding 97% conviction rate. And years before that, Guilfoyle worked as a model for a short time — a woman of many talents, to say the least.

Kimberly Guilfoyle attended the University of California, Davis, before earning her law degree at University of San Francisco School of Law. Immediately after graduation, Guilfoyle briefly worked in a local public school district before landing a permanent job at the San Francisco district attorney's office where she interned while attending UC Davis. This stint at the DA's office was short-lived, and Guilfoyle was swept up in a wave of mass firings following the election of District Attorney Terence Hallinan in 1996.

Unfettered and intent to continue pursuing her law career, Guilfoyle moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for several years. She became an esteemed attorney, winning awards like Prosecutor of the Month at the Los Angeles District Attorney Office, and was able to get her job at the San Francisco DA's office back shortly thereafter. Guilfoyle became famous for her work in dog mauling cases and adult and juvenile cases.

"I believe it is my job to do everything I can so that everyone in our society feels safe," Guilfoyle once said in a 2001 SFGate interview. "Feels that justice is not an abstract concept but a fact of life for all Americans. Sure, our legal system has its flaws, but it is the best legal system in the world. I believe in people. Human beings, deep down, are essentially good."

Nearly two decades before Kimberly Guilfoyle would become Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, she worked as a clothing and underwear model while attending the University of San Francisco Law School. The then-aspiring lawyer modeled clothing and underwear for national retailers like Macy's and Victoria's Secret to help cover her law school bills. As she put it in a May 2001 interview with SFGate, the temporary career choice was "a means to an end, period."

Guilfoyle also became a mother before throwing her hat in the political ring. After divorcing from Gavin Newsom, Guilfoyle married furniture heir Eric Villency in 2006. She and Villency had one son, Ronan Anthony Villency, together before splitting up three years later. Guilfoyle focused on her career — which, by then, had shifted from prosecuting on the West Coast to serving various television personality roles on the East Coast — for a little over 10 years before reuniting with Trump Jr., whom she had met years earlier.

The attorney, legal analyst, and political figure faced her fair share of controversy long before she and Trump Jr. made things official, including a sexual misconduct scandal that led to her departure from Fox News, marking the end of her TV era and the beginning of her tenure as a Trump employee and political organizer. She earned an even more personal spot in the Trump family when she and Trump Jr. got engaged in December 2020.