The U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at her official residence in Athens. Byron Smith for The New York Times

Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Talk of Athens

The former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., and the former wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, is working hard and pushing deals with American business interests. She’s also up late at parties.

By Elisabeth Bumiller
Reporting from Athens
Jan. 4, 2026

It was a splashy arrival. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the new United States ambassador to Greece, landed in Athens on the private jet of a multimillionaire Greek American businessman. She caused a sensation at a Thanksgiving week dinner in a partly sheer black evening dress. When she presented her diplomatic credentials to the Greek president, Constantine Tassoulas, she told him she had previously been to Greece on a “fabulous honeymoon, but …” and then trailed off. ... “Honeymoon was fabulous, the marriage?” Mr. Tassoulas said lightly. ... “We’ll work on a new husband,” Ms. Guilfoyle replied with a small laugh.

Recently, she turned up at an Athens nightclub for the 1:30 a.m. premiere show of her friend, one of the country’s most famous pop singers, Konstantinos Argiros, in a prime seat between her own personal stylist and a Greek businesswoman from a powerful shipping family. She got home in the very small hours of the morning.

“Oh, I wasn’t late, it was like before 3,” Ms. Guilfoyle, the former fiancée of President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., as well as the former wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, said in a recent interview at Jefferson House, her sprawling, Mediterranean-style official residence in Athens.

Weeks after taking on her post, Ms. Guilfoyle, 56, has become the talk of Athens, followed by paparazzi, featured with smoky eyes on the cover of Vogue Greece and much discussed, at least initially, as the woman jilted by the president’s son. Greece was more used to U.S. ambassadors who were traditional foreign service officers, and some Greeks wondered if the Trump administration was disrespecting them with her appointment.

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Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting.

A correction was made on Jan. 4, 2026: A picture caption with an earlier version of this article misstated the title of Dimitrios Zevelakis. He is not the Greek ambassador to the United States.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more

Elisabeth Bumiller writes about the people, politics and culture of the nation’s capital, and how decisions made there affect lives across the country and the world.

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 4, 2026, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: An Ambassador to Greece Attracts Deals and Paparazzi. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe