Inside Elizabeth Holmes's Relationship with Hotel Heir Billy Evans: 'There Were a Million Reasons' for Him to Run (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Elizabeth Holmes arrives at federal court with her partner Billy Evans and mother Noel Holmes on November 18, 2022.Photo:Justin Sullivan/Getty

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Inside the visitation center in federal prison in Texas,Elizabeth Holmes, 41 — the formerTheranosfounder and CEO — hugs and kisses her partnerBilly Evans, 33, and their two childrenWilliam, 3 andInvicta,2.

Each week, the family enjoys simple pleasures like drawing with crayons, playing with Legos or searching for insects in the prison yard. These moments, Holmes says, bring her the most happiness.

“When I’m with Billy, I feel infinity,” says Holmes. “It’s why I want to fight for love and fight for my family, because I know what it means.”

Elizabeth Holmes PEOPLE COVER Feb. 2025.Philip Cheung/The New York Times/Redux

Philip Cheung/The New York Times/Redux

“I know how the optics look, but I always wanted to be a mother,” she says.

Holmes was convicted on four of 11 charges — three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud — for deceiving investors while running Theranos, a once high-flying healthcare startup that collapsed in 2022 amid a massive fraud scandal.

Referencing his relationship with Holmes, Evans tells PEOPLE, “Everyone tried to break us, but instead we forged an unbreakable bond.” He adds: “She’s my best friend and soulmate. I believe in her in every way.”

Elizabeth Holmes poses for a portrait with her partner Billy Evans and their two children at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve on March 24, 2023.Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Eight years ago, the couple met at a Fleet Week charity event during the height of the Theranos scandal, and there was an instant connection.

“I was totally in love with him. I loved him,” Holmes recalls. “We talked for hours. It was the most pointed moment in my life. It’s when I trusted my heart.”

For six months, they remained friends, cooking meals and hiking trails in the Santa Cruz mountains. “Billy was also talking about his life and making a difference with humanity when we hiked together. I knew this is the person I wanted to spend my life with,” says Holmes. “I admire him. I’m so proud. He fights for our family, our babies and me — it’s unconditional love.”

At first, Evans hesitated to dive into a relationship with Holmes. But as he got to know her, his feelings deepened. A year later in 2018, after they had attended aTaylor SwiftReputationconcert together, Evans proposed with a silver snake ring he’d bought at the show.

They decided to start a family despite the legal jeopardy that Holmes faced because of her crimes. “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.

Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans with son William in San Diego in 2023.

Just three years earlier, aWall Street Journalinvestigation exposed the fraud of Theranos’s purported testing technology, triggering a federal investigation and the company’s two-year shutdown. Eventually, Holmes and her former boyfriend, Theranos executiveRamesh “Sunny” Balwani,were indicted on charges of misleading investors and defrauding them and patients of hundreds of millions of dollars. The former couple, who had been romantically involved for over a decade, was later ordered to pay$452 million in restitution.

“I actually didn’t think I’d be with anyone else [after Sunny],” Holmes admits. “I really wanted to grow in that way, be on my own. But in this relationship, God put me on this Earth to find Billy. I’m trusting my heart to feel that.”

At first, she says, Evans’s family and friends were skeptical. “I’m sure Billy’s family was skeptical about me — but I’m grateful for that process. It makes the relationship that much deeper,” Holmes says. “What I’m going through now — you really get to know who someone is and build that bond as I’ve gone through this case. But I have the strength to keep going through it again and again."

Though the couple never officially married, Holmes says that might change. “Maybe we’ll get married someday. But our bond is more than a piece of paper,” she says. “We bought rings on Amazon before I went to prison," she adds, glancing down at the silver band on her ring finger. “It’s just special to me because our love is deep. It’s real.”

For more on Elizabeth Holmes and her life in prison, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.

source: people.com