Elizabeth Holmes talks about “Hell and Torture” of prison, new inventions and pregnancy “optics”

Elizabeth Holmes, The Theranos founder, who sons an 11-year judgment for fraud, has described his life behind pillars as “hell and torture” in his first interview from prison, Published in People Wednesday.

Before Holmes reported to Federal Picture Camp in Bryan, Texas in May 2023, Holmes greeted two children with partner Billy EvansWhich draws the timeline of her trial process significantly. The time of the pregnancy she told People“Was not scheduled and I can’t worry about what others think.”

“I know what the optics look like, but I’ve always wanted to be a mother,” Holmes said.

There are 3-year-old son WilliamIf birth in July 2021 further pushed back to her three-times-postponed trial and 2-year-old daughter Invicta (which means “invincible”), which was conceived after Holmes’ January 2022 -Opening and born about three months before Holmes, she started earning time. Holmes’ team quoted the two young children as they asked for a lighter sentence.

“I really didn’t think I would ever be convicted or found guilty,” she insisted. “I continued to talk to my lawyers, and they also assured me that we would never get that far.”

She maintains her innocence and did not plead guilty to her trial, where she was ultimately found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, of the first 11 charges, and said in the interview that “there are things I would have done differently. “

Still: “I received a significant amount of time that I did not expect,” she said. “I’ve always wanted a big family, Billy wanted even more children.”

Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans go back to his hotel after a hearing by Robert E. Peckham Us Courthouse on March 17, 2023 in San Jose, California.Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

She is currently scheduled for release on April 3, 2032, after she has already received two years of her verdict reduced for good behavior. Her children will be 10 and 9 years old on her planned release date.

One May 2023 New York Times Profile of Holmes caused a rebellion when reporter Amy Chozick Granted in the piece that her editor on paper said Chozick had been “rolled” by Holmes – please call her “Liz,” she insisted – when Chozick found she was “a devoted mother” and “authentic and sympathetic person. ” Times Employees protested for the vaseline lens portrait of Holmes and questioned the integrity of the play.

This latest interview emphasizes that after bringing two breast pumps in jail with her “Because it was a way of loving her (daughter) in here,” Lobbede Holmes successfully for the addition of breastfeeding rooms to breastfeeding mothers to have privacy in the prison house . She teaches French to fellow prisoners and has a job in prison that helps women work on their case for compassionate release and editing resumes for their re -entry into the community. She also mentioned that she wrote a seven-page document to change criminal procedure, including advocates for imprisoned parents. This Holmes is a tingling mother torn away from the children she calls “angels” determined to help others in her position find justice.

“This will be the work of my life,” she said.

Holmes acknowledged that the public appears to be suspicious of her, to put it mildly. “It’s surreal,” she said People. “People who have never met me believe me so strongly. They don’t understand who I am. It forces you to spend a lot of time questioning the faith and hoping that the truth will prevail. I go by faith and ultimately the truth. But it’s been hell and torture to be here. “

And then there is her other The work of life, one with a strong connection to her high profiled past: Holmes still dreams of innovating in the health field, despite the very public scandal of her shame-testing technology company, Theranos.

“There’s not a day when I haven’t continued to work on my research and inventions,” she said. “I remain completely engaged in my dream of making affordable health solutions available to everyone.”