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What We Know About Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani's 12-Year Relationship
Hulu / Beth Dubber
The rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is taking centre stage in the upcoming Disney+ series “The Dropout,” starring Amanda Seyfried and Neveen Andrews. For those unfamiliar with the story, Holmes founded the blood test startup in 2003 before dropping out of Stanford University, and the company was valued at $9 billion over a decade later. By 2015, Forbes named Holmes as the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. Theranos promised to rapidly conduct blood tests using small amounts of blood, but amid growing concerns over the validity of the test results, The Wall Street Journal exposed the shortcomings with Theranos’s technology.
The 2015 report marked the downfall of a blood-tech company that was once touted as the next big thing. But perhaps what is just as engrossing is Holmes’s secret 12-year relationship with Pakistani-born entrepreneur Sunny Balwani (née Ramesh Balwani), who joined the Theranos in 2009 as vice president before becoming the company’s chief operating officer. Deposition tapes reported by ABC News in 2019 confirmed Holmes and Balwani’s relationship, though Theranos employees and investors weren’t aware of anything romantic going on between the two.
Ahead of “The Dropout”‘s March 3 premiere, take a look at Balwani and Holmes’s relationship timeline.
HULU / Beth Dubber
2002: Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani Meet in China
According to Balwani’s divorce filings, he and Holmes met in 2002 while on a language-immersion trip to Bejing with Stanford University. They were 18 and 37, respectively, at the time.
HULU / Beth Dubber
2004: Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani Start a Romantic Relationship
Several reports suggest Balwani and Holmes started a romantic relationship in March 2004 after she dropped out of Stanford to pursue Theranos full-time.
HULU / Beth Dubber
2005: Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani Move in Together
According to John Carreyrou’s book “Bad Blood,” which covers the rise and fall of Theranos, Balwani and Holmes were living together by the summer of 2005.
HULU / Beth Dubber
2009: Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani's Relationship Turns Professional
Despite his lack of scientific training, Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 as vice president before being promoted to chief operating officer. Former Theranos employees say that Balwani was known for his demanding, angry demeanor.
HULU / Beth Dubber
2016: Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani Break Up
Unsurprisingly, Balwani and Holmes’s relationship began to unravel due to growing concerns over false and faulty blood test results. In the spring of 2016, Balwani announced his retirement from the blood-testing startup, but Holmes says she fired him.
