Speaking to MPs for the first time since the result, the Prime Minister finally showed real remorse.
It was a surprise move - Mr Gove was sacked as justice minister by Mrs May previous year after his bid to become party leader forced now-foreign minister Boris Johnson from the race, amid accusations of treachery and political backstabbing.
"The people of Britain have had a bellyful of promises and politicking", he wrote.
"Because Mrs. May's in this mess, I don't think it necessarily means that the Conservative Party doesn't have a strong case to put to the EU simply because I believe personally that it's in the European Union's best interest to continue tariff-free trade with the United Kingdom as it is in the United Kingdom's interest".
The Conservatives won 318 seats out of the 650 in last Thursday's vote, meaning they now require support to govern and have chosen the eurosceptic Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has 10 seats, for that.
Formal Brexit talks are due to begin on 19 June, which is the same day as the Queen's speech, at which point it will be known if May has secured the support of a majority of MPs for her policy agenda.
British Secretary of State James Brokenshire, who will chair the Northern Ireland negotiations, has called a June 29 deadline to conclude the talks "final and immovable".
"Our position is clearly set out, it is clearly set out in a number of places and there has been no change to that", Mrs May's spokesman said, adding that Brexit minister David Davis had set out the same position earlier yesterday.
The government will in all likelihood be able to get its now to-be-delayed Queen Speech (the details of the laws it hopes to pass, which will be announced by the government) through the House of Commons, with the backing of the DUP, with which it is in the midst of a "confidence and supply" agreement.
He also said the government would still "walk away" with no deal if talks broke down on ending Britain's four-decade membership of the bloc.
However, George Osborne, a former finance minister who is now editor of London's Evening Standard newspaper and a vocal critic of May, said she appeared a "dead woman walking".
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Look, we all like to, you know, quote his famous lines like, 'I am your father.' And, 'This is CNN. Cynthia Nixon got political at the Tony Awards, but didn't name names.
May has a busy schedule on Tuesday, hosting a cabinet meeting and talks with the DUP leader before travelling to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.
The visibly weakened premier denied she was feeling "shell-shocked" after her election gamble backfired.
Davis also suggested the government would focus on the divorce proceedings before moving on to trade. Gove, who was dismissed when May became prime minister past year, will now serve as environment secretary.
He said there was no appetite among the public for a leadership contest which could plunge the party into a fresh general election.
Over the weekend, May's top two aides stepped aside.
"We've been through this in the past in the 1970s and it can be incredibly hard", said Lord Karan Bilimoria, the crossbench member of the House of Lords, who has been an outspoken critic of the Prime Minister and believes the Conservative Party conference later this year was a likely moment for the party to review its leadership.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said there had been "positive engagement" so far.
Asked about the possibility of a Norway option, he answered: "We're not going down that route".
The DUP, which is a right-wing party, has a more liberal stance on Brexit than the Conservatives in its manifesto.
Such a referendum is permitted for under Northern Ireland's 1998 peace deal and any attempt to block it would be fiercely opposed by Irish nationalists.
There have also been concerns that joining forces with the hardline Protestant party threatens London's neutrality in Northern Ireland, which is key to the delicate balance of power in a province once plagued by violence.
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