Yes, That Elizabeth Holmes Voice Was Fake

Amy Chozick spends time with the disgraced tech mogul for 'New York Times' profile
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2023 7:25 AM CDT
Yes, That Elizabeth Holmes Voice Was Fake
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives at federal court in San Jose, Calif., March 17, 2023.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced health-tech mogul now facing 11 years in prison, has not spoken with the media since 2016. But she gave Amy Chozick unprecedented access for a profile that appears in the New York Times. Chozick writes that she is surprised at how utterly "normal" the 39-year-old seems with her two young children and partner Billy Evans. But Chozick also is aware of Holmes' reputation of being a master manipulator, with one of Holmes' own friends warning Chozick anonymously not to believe anything she says. The author notes that Holmes speaks "in a soft, slightly low, but totally unremarkable voice, no hint of the throaty contralto she used while running her defunct blood-testing start-up Theranos." In fact, Evans even jokes about that and imitates the phony voice.

"That would be crazy, if she answered the door and said, ‘Hi. I’m Elizabeth Holmes,'” Evans says, doing his imitation. "Holmes let out the slightest of giggles from the back seat," writes Chozick. But the voice was part of the persona Holmes says she had to create to get people to take her seriously in business. “I made so many mistakes and there was so much I didn’t know and understand, and I feel like when you do it wrong, it’s like you really internalize it in a deep way,” she tells Chozick. Holmes also discusses surviving a rape at Stanford (Chozick reviews the police report), and how that contributed to her leaving school to work with Theranos partner Sunny Balwani, whom she describes as uber-controlling. "He always told me I needed to ‘kill Elizabeth,’ so I could become a good entrepreneur,” she says. (Read the full story.)

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