Elizabeth Holmes is speaking out for the first time in a prison interview.
In a cover story for People magazine published on Wednesday, the former Theranos founder and CEO opened up about life in prison while also reflecting on her fallen professional past.
In 2014, Holmes became the nation’s youngest self-made billionaire after launching her blood-testing start-up, Theranos, a decade prior, which promised to revolutionize health care and was backed by investors such as Rupert Murdoch. However, after The Wall Street Journal published an exposé that questioned the legitimacy and accuracy of the company’s technology, Holmes and Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani became at the center of a highly publicized federal probe. They were indicted on charges of misleading investors and defrauding them and patients. During her trial, Holmes pleaded not guilty to the health scam.
“I’m not the same person I was back then,” Holmes now tells People. Despite maintaining her innocence she added, “There are things I would have done differently.
“It’s surreal,” she continued. “People who have never met me believe so strongly about me. They don’t understand who I am. It forces you to spend a lot of time questioning belief and hoping the truth will prevail. I am walking by faith and, ultimately, the truth. But it’s been hell and torture to be here.”
Holmes’ journey to creating Theranos and its eventual demise was depicted in Hulu’s hit limited series The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes. She was also the subject of the 2019 HBO docuseries The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,
When speaking of Balwani, who Holmes was secretly dating at the time prior to the investigation, Holmes testified at her trail that he sexually abused and manipulated her, which he has denied.
“First it was about accepting it happened,” she said of their relationship. “Then it was about forgiving myself for my own part. [And] I refused to plead guilty to crimes I did not commit. Theranos failed. But failure is not fraud.”
She continued, “I wish that I left, or I had seen the abuse or understood it — and why I didn’t — and I’m finding peace with that. It can break a lot of people, and I was able to rise through it as best I can.”
While in prison, Holmes detailed her usual routine, which includes working out, working as a reentry clerk, attending therapy, counseling inmates who are rape survivors, teaching French classes and reading. Given she was still breastfeeding for her baby when starting her prison sentence, Holmes said she spoke to the prison’s warden about allowing incarcerated women to breastfeed privately. Authorities eventually built multiple lactation rooms in the housing units.
As she awaits her release scheduled for April 3, 2032, Holmes explained that she has also kept busy by brainstorming new inventions with the intent of continuing a career in health care technology post-prison. “There is not a day I have not continued to work on my research and inventions,” she said. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable health care solutions available to everyone.”
Then because of her time in prison, Holmes was motivated to draft an American Freedom Act bill, which People describes as one aimed “to bolster the presumption of innocence and change criminal procedure” which she described as her “life’s work.”
Holmes shares two children with partner Billy Evans, who routinely visit her: “It kills me to put my family through pain the way I do. But when I look back on my life, and these angels that have come into it, I can get through anything. It makes me want to fight for all of it.”