Elizabeth Holmes is trying to make the best of her situation while serving time for fraud and conspiracy.
During a rare interview from Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, Holmes, 41, broke her silence about her experience behind bars after serving nearly two years of an 11-year sentence.
“Human beings are not made to be in cells,” Holmes, whose sentence has been reduced to nine years for good behavior, told People on Wednesday, February 12. “It goes so far beyond understanding. I’m trying really hard not to tear up right now. I’m trying to grow, as every moment matters. And if one person’s life can be touched trying to help them in a crisis, it matters.”
Holmes broke down her schedule in prison, which starts with a 5 A.M. wake-up. Her morning consists of fruit for breakfast and then a 40-minute daily workout made up of lifting weights, rowing and running on a track. At 8 A.M., Holmes checks in at the education building where she earns 31 cents an hour as a re-entry clerk.
Holmes’ lunch and dinner consists of a largely vegan diet but she has added salmon and tuna after becoming anemic in her first year in prison. She is allowed 300 minutes on the phone every month for twice-daily calls to her family. Her loved ones (which includes husband Billy Evans) also visit her on the weekends but conjugal visits are not allowed.
Holmes surrendered into custody in May 2023 after being sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. The former Theranos founder also faces three years of supervision upon her release, as well as a fine of $100 per each count of fraud.
Holmes has become infamous after founding Theranos in 2003 with the idea that they could invent a way to perform blood tests using only a small amount of blood obtained from a finger prick. After raising more than $700 million from high-profile investors, the company also landed partnerships with major companies such as Walgreens.
As the company began to grow so did worry as to whether the technology actually worked. The FDA launched an investigation in August 2015 while Wall Street reporter John Carreyrou wrote an exposé in October 2015 claiming that Theranos’ blood-testing machine could not deliver the correct results and was running samples through other manufacturers’ machines.
After Theranos ceased its lab operations and wellness centers, Holmes and her ex and former partner Sunny Balwani were charged with “massive fraud” by the SEC in March 2018. Balwani, who is 19 years her senior, met Holmes when she was in Stanford’s summer Mandarin program. He served as her right-hand man at the company, but the two parted ways in 2016 when he exited Theranos. In December 2022, Balwani was sentenced to 13 years in prison for defrauding investors and patients about the company’s business and technology.
Holmes, meanwhile, found love again with Evans in 2017. The couple share kids William, 3, and Invicta, 2, which has motivated Holmes to advocate for fellow moms behind bars. Holmes spoke to People about how she was able to bring two breast pumps with her into detention because her daughter was only 3-months-old when she had to report for her sentence.
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“I wanted my daughter to have her mother’s milk,” she recalled. “It was important to me because it was a way to love her in here.”
Holmes subsequently spoke to the prison’s warden about allowing women to breastfeed privately. This inspired authorities to build multiple lactation rooms in the housing units in 2023. The outlet described how one station includes a large mural of a mother holding her baby alongside a freezer to store milk for the next visit.
The disgraced former biotechnology entrepreneur continues to maintain her innocence.
“I’m not the same person I was back then,” Holmes, who pleaded not guilty at her trial, said while noting that “there are things” she would have “done differently” ahead of her ongoing prison stint. “It’s surreal. 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.”
