gavin christopher newsom was born on october 10, 1967 in san francisco, california to tessa menzies newsom and william a. newsom lll. during his childhood he was diagnosed with dyslexia, which made it very difficult to read, write, spell and work with numbers and his parents divorced in 1972 when he was five years old. during his teen years, newsom had to work several jobs to support his family plus he was a shooting guard as a basketball player in high school.