People Magazine has a cover interview with convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes, who perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in history through her blood testing company, Theranos. Holmes is currently in a Texas federal prison, where she has served two years out of a now nine year sentence. In People, Holmes comes across as a defensive self-pitying narcissist who believes she can still revolutionize healthcare while single-handedly reforming the American criminal justice system. It’s very on-brand for her, as is a major celebrity publication giving a platform to a white woman who stole over $500 million and continues to lie about it. People has some choice quotes from Holmes along with a look at her average days in prison, which include exercising, working with inmates on their resumes and speaking to her family twice a day. Holmes claims that getting pregnant twice while awaiting trial for fraud was just her way of starting a family when she could, and that she never expected to serve time. I’m going to quote from a couple of different stories on People here.
On how hard it is to only see her children every weekend
Her young children — son William, 3, and daughter Invicta, 2 — are being raised nearby by their father, Holmes’s partner Billy Evans, 33, but visit their mother at the dormitory-style correctional facility every weekend.“It’s been pure pain since I’ve been here,” says Holmes, who opens up about her life behind bars and being separated from her family in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. “It’s been torture.”
Why she had kids while awaiting trial
Although the start of her prison sentence was postponed, Holmes says she still wasn’t mentally prepared to serve time as a mother with two babies. She gave birth to her first child, William, just weeks before her fraud trial began. Evans, whom she met at a rooftop charity event in Oct. 2017 during the Theranos scandal, presented a silver snake ring bought at a Taylor Swift Reputation Tour concert when he proposed to her a year later.Together they decided to start a family despite the legal jeopardy that Holmes was soon to face. “I asked him 20 times if he wanted to spend his life with me,” she recalls. “There were a million reasons why not.” (Although Evans is an heir to the Evans Hotel Group, his family hasn’t contributed to Holmes’s legal defense. )
A year later Holmes was pregnant again with daughter Invicta (Latin for “invincible”), which delayed her prison start by a month. “I always wanted to be a mother,” she explains. “I truly did not think I would ever be convicted or found guilty.”
She’s going to reform the criminal justice system
Scheduled for release on April 3, 2032, Holmes says she hopes to travel with her family and to fight for reform of criminal justice system. She recently drafted an American Freedom Act bill — a seven-page handwritten document— to bolster the presumption of innocence and change criminal procedure. “This will be my life’s work,” says Holmes, adding that she is speaking out now as part of her mission to advocate on behalf of incarcerated persons and those ripped away from their children.She doesn’t think she did anything wrong
While she defiantly maintains her innocence, Holmes admits, “I replayed mistakes I made a million times in my mind, burning them into my body.” But when asked to specify the “mistakes” she made, Holmes declines to answer, saying only, “Theranos failed. I take responsibility for that failure. Failure is not fraud…”And, despite her global reputation as a biotech con artist who put lives at risk, she says she’s continuing to write patents for new inventions and plans to resume her career in healthcare technology after her release. “There is not a day I have not continued to work on my research and inventions,” she says. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone.”
The Today Show has a brief interview with the People journalist who met with Holmes, Danielle Bacher. Bacher says that Holmes speaks in a normal voice now and that she won’t admit she’s done anything wrong. It sound like she’s painting herself as a victim for facing even this small sliver of a consequence. Holmes gets to see her kids and husband every weekend, she speaks to her family twice a day, she gets therapy once a week and is doing work she describes as meaningful. She’s still getting positive press and a platform for her lies too. It’s jaw-droppingly delusional and maddening, but I guess that’s just this woman’s whole personality. The minute Holmes gets out of prison in six years she’s going to start grifting again. She’ll probably be successful since she’s an expert at scamming old white Republican men.
"I refused to plead guilty to crimes I did not commit," Holmes told People Magazine. "Theranos failed. But failure is not fraud." https://t.co/mBMOBbqoiY
— Inc. (@Inc) February 13, 2025
I spent time in federal prison in Texas to interview Elizabeth Holmes. My exclusive cover story is on newsstands today! https://t.co/NRhrskpvtj via @people
— Danielle Bacher (@DBacherwrites) February 12, 2025
I typically object to prison time for non violent offenses, except for people like Madoff and Holmes. At a certain level, fraud is a violent offense because it destroys lives. At their level, it’s equivalent to a mass murder. And the absolute gall of having multiple pregnancies to add motherhood to her white woman legal defense. I hope those children are getting good mental health support. That’s all I have. Plenty of children have mothers in prison who really shouldn’t be there.
Hard same but I also feel like white collar crime is not prosecuted nearly enough and often times the punishment is a mere slap on the wrist. Which yeah, non-violent crime, but leaving people financially destitute and/or endangering their health or livelihoods is not nothing and should be considered a serious crime subject to serious consequences. The Club Fed treatment is not a deterrent.
Holmes is such an arrogant, unapologetic, and entirely unsympathetic individual so I love this for her.
Wasn’t her company actually faking bloodwork results too to make it look like it actually worked? Completely dangerous and delusional.
I truly believe she used motherhood as a ploy to get out of prison. That is sick. Narcissistic.
Why give is People giving this con artist tech failure a cover?
People died because of her, one person committed suicide. Boohoo, Elizabeth. Serve your time. Maybe up your therapy sessions, because you’re still refusing to see the person you really are.
While I think she is spoiled and privileged white woman, she also pings as having a mental health issue. Any psych majors ping on her personality disorder etc….
Healthcare fraud is disgusting and harms real vulnerable people. Killing and injuring. I’m livid w her responses
@Barrett – I feel like mental issues are just a condition of being human. Most of us experience them to some degree at some point in our lives. Some humans have mental health issues that prevent them from feeling empathy for other humans. I’m not a psychologist. Just someone who has lived a few decades and known lots of humans. My sense is that people who lack empathy cannot be cured. What I’m asking is . . . if someone has “mental health issues” that are incurable and make them a danger to other humans, what do we do?
This is a violent offense, honestly. People died because of her. Her sentence was a joke.
Yeah, but two people just like her are running the country, right now—and how many have they killed, between them? Trump let people die of covid, because he thought it would help him, politically… and Elon let people die in his cars, because it would help him, financially. Now, they’re gutting the country. Only difference is they’re men. Wouldn’t be surprised to see her join them, soon.
This grifter has no remorse and is still delusional. She better spend every second of that prison sentence behind bars. No early release.
Which is why I actually believe her when she says that she never expected to go to prison. She is delusional and thinks she did nothing wrong.
Shouldn’t be surprising, considering who’s running the country, now.
She not only committed financial fraud, but she endangered people’s health. She wants to work on prison reform when she’s released, fine. But please stay away from medical device “inventions.” She doesn’t seem to have learned much in prison. If anyone is looking for a good read, Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou documents the Theranos story and is well-researched.
A bed to sleep in, 3 meals a day, laundry service, health care and a therapist, exercise equipment, phone and tv and she’s complaining? You’re in prison, woman, not a vacation.
She and Sunny are at low security federal prisons AKA Club Fed. They are probably low key enjoying the quiet time and being infantilized. Everything is done for them. And her simp husband moved to be closer to her.
The average prisoner does not have the luxuries she has in prison and with family.
She’s delusional this is ‘torture’. I guess having to make your own bed when you are used to servants doing it for you daily. Is her version of the 9th circle in hell.
She and her attack dogs bullied and threatened employees and whistleblowers and her product caused misdiagnosis of patients. Holmes fraud and need to cover up her fraud led to Ian Gibbon, a Theranos employee, to commit suicide. Then if that wasn’t enough she and Sunny Balwani had their lawyers threatened his widow and family. So no pity from me. She can rot in jail.
Thank you for stating this @Mireille. Holmes was no victim, no delicate flower. She was a vicious, vindictive liar and fraud. Her unwillingness/inability to take any responsibility makes her a danger to the community.
“I always wanted to be a mother,” she explains. “I truly did not think I would ever be convicted or found guilty.” So, it seems she did think getting pregnant would keep her out of prison. Those babies are just a means to an end.
She is a detestable person. She’s just Trump with XX chromosomes.
Cry harder!!!!!!!
If she hadn’t gone to prison, she’d have just been confirmed as Trump’s Secretary of Health.
OMFG. Shes in federal prison. Does that mean he could pardon her? She’s exactly his type.
@ Mightymolly – I dunno, didn’t she swindle his rich Republican buddies out of a lot of money? I can’t remember – I watched the 20/20 on her years ago and I couldn’t get through the Amanda Seyfried movie, it was so boring.
He won’t, only because she robbed from his buddies i.e. the DeVos family. Elizabeth DeVos was the former Secretary of Education under the 1st Trump administration.
If she had stolen from the general public. She would have been sprung with the January 6th insurrectionists.
Good one — thanks for the laugh!
Ack! Don’t give anyone any ideas.
Or RFKJr’s second in command. We’d all be f*cked. Oh, wait, we already are.
Why would People run an interview with this psycho? Sure, sure, she stole a fortune from easily conned rich men who should have seen through her earlier. Far worse is that she knew her product didn’t work but foisted it on the public. She intentionally endangered people’s lives.
People will buy it out of morbid fascination. See Anna Delvey on Dancing with the Stars and walking the runway at fashion week with her ankle monitor.
See the musical Chicago’s poke at the public being fascinated by women murderers as celebrities.
“It’s very on-brand for her, as is a major celebrity publication giving a platform to a white woman…”
“Why would People run an interview with this psycho?”
Because People Magazine IS a PR tool for celebrities & ordinary people who want to influence other people’s perception of them. That’s why I never take whatever People Mag reports seriously.
To me it had that “give ’em enough rope…” feel to it. I was thinking the writer must really hate her, LOL! Just keep talking lady, tell me more…..keep digging that hole etc.
And yes, it is painfully absurd how much better she has it than other mothers.
I disagree here with the calls for a stringent penalty for Holmes. There’s a much wider group of investors who inflated Theranos’ claims, because they were actively speculating. These people staid anonymous and were never exposed publicly even though they were the ones actively playing up the valuation to get a huge return regardless of the scientific progress of the business. I do give her the benefice of the doubt and I find it very suspicious that she, a woman, is the only person who was publicly crucified in this affair. Venture Capital is full of awful, egotistical, greedy people who would throw anyone under the bus for a quick buck and I truly think she was pushed, manipulated, and influenced to contribute to this shitshow. It really feels like Martha Stewart all again – I am not saying she does not bear responsibility, just saying that the true revolting characters here, the VCs and PEs bros were NEVER exposed and judged, and that does not sit well with me. I worked with a couple of these dudes and the sheer greed is horrifying. Let’s not forget there was an army of investors involved and they turned a blind eye for a quick buck. They were responsible for due diligence, and they never faced any accountability.
What? You clearly don’t know what actually happened. The investors didn’t make money, they lost money. Also, the only other guilty person, a man, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Whole books, movies, and investigative shows have been made about this story. You should check them out.
Sure, Lisa, the pretty white girl was manipulated by all of the mean greedy cash bros. Sigh.
Pretty?
I do think this case was very different from Martha Stewart’s. in that case she was singled out for a passive role (still illegal) that netted a multi-millionaire 80k. Martha could make that kind of money with one keynote speaker gig. To your point, before, during and after her conviction powerful men got away with this routinely.
FWIW, the men who put Martha in jail have shown their true colors in ways that damaged us all, James Comey & Eliot Spitzer.
People Magazine’s standards have sunk even lower than I thought possible. I gave up on them years ago when they defended the Duggars and Tom Cruise. Haven’t bought a copy since then.
She appealed to old white Republican men when she was young and ‘beautiful’. Nine years in prison, even a cushy prison, is a lot more than nine years of normal aging. Just look at that cover photo and imagine the effects of seven more such years. She will have lost 99% of what got her those investors in the first place.
idk, some plastic surgery on her face, breat enhancements, a lighter blonde dye job, and a willingness to be a horrible person and play fetch for old white men and she’ll get a job at fox.
Perfect description of the MAGA sexbots.
What an appalling to say that while there are actual prisoners of war being actually tortured anywhere in the world. She seems completely devoid of empahy. And she had those kids while awaiting trial in hopes of a lighter sentence. They are probably better off without her.
Poor people on Medicaid/Medicare were harmed &/or died because she’s a narcissistic psychopath
..If this society was DECENT…she would have gotten life!
I assume, in her head she has placed all the blame on her business partner/lover Sunny Balwani. Who got 13 years in prison (almost 2 more years than 11 1/4 years Lizzy got).
I still think Elizabeth should have been convicted on the patient counts. She was just as involved as he was. But I guess her hotel heir husband was able to afford more expensive lawyers.
And I genuinely believe if Elizabeth and Sunny had only fleeced ‘the little people’ and not the elite families. They never would have been brought to trial and written off as another start up failure.
As someone that works in a clinical laboratory I want to know how she passed the FDA. A quick 5 minute conversation with any medical laboratory scientist would tell you her science was junk. What she was proposing isn’t possible. You can’t run hundreds of tests on a couple drops of blood.
Yeah, her level of sway must be beyond intense.
There’s no violin tiny enough to play for this narcissistic loonie. The babies were her hope for avoiding incarceration. Investors got conned but the patients who were tested suffered from incorrect diagnostic results, with consequences. She deserves 0 sympathy.
How long will her partner stick around? It’s probably not easy to maintain an alluring mystique as she ages & continues to become irrelevant.
I wonder that myself. His parents, quite understandably, don’t approve of her or the relationship. I can only imagine how they feel now that their child not only has tied himself to a woman who is in prison for fraud (as she should be), but has two children with her. Yikes.
Sorry, I am thinking like a parent here. I am sure they love their son and grandchildren, but they must be sick about this.
If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. Yes, I am that old.
She sounds absolutely delusional and narcissistic. I feel so bad for her kids.