Throughout Elizabeth Holmes‘ many controversies, one man has stood by the Theranos’ founder’s side: her husband, Billy Evans.
In 2003, Holmes founded Theranos, a $9 billion Silicon Valley biotechnology start-up company. She claimed the company had revolutionized blood-testing technology to diagnose a multitude of diseases with just a few drops of blood. In 2015, however, the truth came out — Theranos’ technology didn’t work. Per a Wall Street Journal exposé, company executives manipulated research and swindled investors out of a staggering $700 million.
Three years later, in March 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos, Holmes and former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — Holmes’ ex-boyfriend — with deceiving investors by “an elaborate, years-long fraud,” through false or exaggerated statements about the accuracy of the company’s blood-testing technology, as well as Theranos’ business and financial performance. Balwani, for his part, was convicted of fraud in July 2022 on 12 felony counts of defrauding both Theranos investors and patients.
Holmes was convicted by a California jury in January 2022 on four counts of wire fraud. Eleven months later, she was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, per multiple outlets. The disgraced tech guru also faces three years of supervision upon her release and must pay a $100 fine per each fraud conviction.
Despite all the chaos, however, Evans remains a dedicated husband to the former CEO.
Scroll down to learn more about Holmes’ husband:
Throughout Elizabeth Holmes‘ many controversies, one man has stood by the Theranos’ founder’s side: her husband, Billy Evans.
In 2003, Holmes founded Theranos, a $9 billion Silicon Valley biotechnology start-up company. She claimed the company had revolutionized blood-testing technology to diagnose a multitude of diseases with just a few drops of blood. In 2015, however, the truth came out — Theranos’ technology didn’t work. Per a Wall Street Journal exposé, company executives manipulated research and swindled investors out of a staggering $700 million.
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Three years later, in March 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos, Holmes and former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — Holmes’ ex-boyfriend — with deceiving investors by “an elaborate, years-long fraud,” through false or exaggerated statements about the accuracy of the company’s blood-testing technology, as well as Theranos’ business and financial performance. Balwani, for his part, was convicted of fraud in July 2022 on 12 felony counts of defrauding both Theranos investors and patients.
Holmes was convicted by a California jury in January 2022 on four counts of wire fraud. Eleven months later, she was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, per multiple outlets. The disgraced tech guru also faces three years of supervision upon her release and must pay a $100 fine per each fraud conviction.
Despite all the chaos, however, Evans remains a dedicated husband to the former CEO.
Scroll down to learn more about Holmes’ husband:
Evans grew up near San Diego and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2015.
Once he graduated, Evans attempted to create a luxury healthcare start-up that would transport affluent Chinese clients to the United States for concierge medical attention, with amenities like chauffeured car services, beautiful hotels and top-notch health care, New York Post reports — though the project never came to fruition.
The tech guru’s first official job out of college was at LinkedIn, where he was a strategy and analytics leadership program analyst from July 2015 to 2017. He then moved on to Luminar Technologies, which produces sensors for self-driving cars, taking on the role of manager of special projects. He was working there when he and Holmes began their relationship.
The couple met at a 2017 party in the San Francisco Bay Area, about two years after Elizabeth’s fraud had been exposed. The hotel heir told friends that she was nothing like how she had been portrayed in the media.
“Days later, I was hanging out with Billy and he said, ‘You won’t believe who I met! She’s not as the articles portray her to be,” a colleague told the New York Post.
Cut to 2019, and the two were engaged. Evans proposed with his college ring from MIT instead of going the more traditional diamond route. The hotel heir always wore his class ring on his pinky finger — it was incredibly special to him, and now, he was giving it to her.
Rumors started circling when Page Six reported that the news was leaked on the podcast B*tch Sesh, a Real Housewives podcast, in June 2019 during a live event in San Francisco.
Vanity Fair reporter Nick Bilton shared on a 2019 episode of the “Inside the Hive” podcast, “I heard that no Theranos people were invited, which is interesting because she’s still friendly with some of her Theranos folks.”
The couple’s eldest child, William Holmes Evans, was born on July 10, 2021, in Redwood City, California.
In March 2021, she told the court that she was expecting — pushing the proceedings for a fourth time, after having been delayed three previous times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Holmes is currently pregnant with her and Evans’ second child.
In The Dropout, the 2022 Hulu miniseries based on Holmes’ life, featured Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried as the billionaire, while The Sinner alum Garrett Coffey portrayed Evans. Naveen Andrews played Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
The title of the hit series refers to Holmes’ decision to drop out of Stanford University’s School of Engineering at the age of 19 to start the now-defunct Theranos.