Evans, heir to chain of hotels in California, is Holmes’ partner, with whom she shares one child born last year and another on the way.
Not much is known about their relationship, but Holmes’ trial has recently revealed more information about the couple, including the story of how they met, and Evans’ initial hesitation about a relationship with Holmes.
William “Billy” Evans grew up near San Diego, California. He’s one of three children born to his parents, Susan and William L. Evans.
Sebastien Burel/Shutterstock
Source: Daily Mail
The Evans family has lived in the San Diego area for generations. Billy Evans’ grandparents, Anne and William D. Evans, founded a hotel management group in 1953 called Evans Hotels. The group manages three properties in the San Diego area.The Lodge Torrey Pines in La Jolla, one of the properties owned by Evans Hotels.
Shutterstock.com
Source: Evans Hotels
After William D. Evans died in 1984, his widow, Anne, added two of her children to the Evans Hotels management team, including William L. Evans, who is Billy Evans’ father.Catamaran Resort Hotel, another property managed by Evans Hotels.
Google Maps
Source: Evans Hotels
Billy Evans attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. During summers between school, Evans worked at various financial and consulting companies in California, according to his LinkedIn. He was also a student brand manager at Red Bull while at MIT.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Facebook/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Source: LinkedIn
While at MIT, Evans studied abroad in China on a full scholarship, his LinkedIn says. He studied Chinese language and literature at Fudan University in Shanghai.Fudan University in China.
Reuters/Aly Song/File Photo
Source: LinkedIn
After graduating from MIT, Evans reportedly tried to launch a healthcare startup for transporting wealthy Chinese people to the US for “concierge medical attention.” Although he studied Chinese in college, Evans wasn’t fluent in the language, and the idea never took off.Pedestrians in Shanghai, China.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Source: New York Post
After that startup idea failed, Evans worked at LinkedIn as a strategy and analytics leadership program analyst. He worked there until February 2017.
Darren Weaver
Source: LinkedIn
Evans then moved to Luminar Technologies, a startup working on radar and sensor technology for autonomous cars. His LinkedIn says he was a manager of special projects, but employees told the Post he was fond of “wandering around with absolute purpose, but no one knew what that purpose was.”Luminar CEO Austin Russell monitors a 3D lidar map on a demonstration drive in San Francisco.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Source: LinkedIn, New York Post
Evans was reportedly close with Luminar’s CEO, Austin Russell. He acted as Russell’s “secret police” who would “strut around the office and tell people what to do,” the New York Post reports.Luminar CEO Austin Russell.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Source: New York Post
Holmes and Evans met in 2017, according to a letter Evans wrote.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Holmes’ attorneys recently filed 130 such letters from friends and family seeking leniency in her sentencing. In his, Evans talked about the couple’s story and his initial hesitation to pursue a relationship with Holmes; confirmed speculation that she’s pregnant with their second child; and gave a glimpse into their private lives throughout the trial as he made his plea for a lighter sentence.
Evans is 30 years old — eight years younger than the 38-year-old Holmes.
Nick Otto/AFP/Getty Images
Source: New York Post
Evans opened his letter recalling how he and Holmes met, at a Fleet Week charity event hosted by a friend in the fall of 2017.
David Odisho/Getty Images
Evans wrote that he was going to thank the host before leaving, when the host introduced him to three people, one of whom was Holmes.
“The two of us immediately connected,” Evans wrote. “We walked away from the others, and it was as if the rest of the world ceased to exist.”
He said Holmes wore a sunhat and oversized glasses to try to “stay under the radar” and he didn’t initially recognize her as they spoke.
“It was strange to feel so comfortable and willing to share with someone who I didn’t know. I was captivated by her childish wonder and authenticity,” he added. “We spoke for hours, I lost track of time, and even if I didn’t know it…. I fell in love. She pulled out her business card, scribbled her personal cell on the back and then it clicked who she was.”
Evans said they remained “just friends” for six months, writing, “I was admittedly hesitant to dive in given all that had been said, Liz had been consistently vilified in every piece of media imaginable.”
Ethan Swope/Getty Images
“The more I got to know her the more I loved who she was,” he added. “It was not long before the friendship turned into something more.”
Evans’ letter also confirmed speculation that the pair are expecting another child, as he talked about her swimming the Golden Gate Bridge earlier this year while pregnant. He also shared other details about their personal lives in the letter.
AMY OSBORNE/AFP via Getty Images
Evans wrote that the couple’s husky, Balto, was taken from their front porch by a mountain lion and killed. His letter, and several others in the filing, also noted Holmes is a volunteer for a sexual assault crisis helpline, and Evans said she was recently “working on draft state legislation to help ensure victims of sexual violence and rape will be granted their survivors rights and receive the care they need.” Holmes had testified during her trial that she was raped in her sophomore year at Stanford and separately alleged that she was emotionally and sexually abused by Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and former right-hand man at Theranos.
Evans said he and Holmes don’t have privacy because of the trial and have moved multiple times after their home address was revealed. He added that their son has been “avoided by other families not wanting to expose their children to my family.”
“This will follow us for the rest of our lives,” he wrote. “There is no avoiding the scorn that accompanies Elizabeth Holmes.”
The two were first spotted in public together in August 2018 at Burning Man, the arts festival in the Nevada desert, just days before Theranos fully shut down.
Jim Urquhart/Reuters
Source: Daily Mail
The couple have regularly posted pictures “professing their love for each other” on a private Instagram account, Vanity Fair’s Nick Bilton reports.—Nick Bilton (@nickbilton)
February 21, 2019
Source: Vanity Fair
Evans left his job at Luminar in January 2019. Luminar employees told the Post they suspect the reason was the potentially bad publicity surrounding Evans’ relationship with Holmes.
HBO
Source: New York Post
As recently as 2019, Holmes and Evans lived in a $5,395-a-month apartment in San Francisco, according to CNBC. The unit was located in the Russian Hill neighborhood near Lombard Street, the iconic crooked street and well-known tourist attraction.
Rent SF Now
Source: CNBC, Business Insider
Vanity Fair reported in February 2019 that Holmes and Evans had gotten engaged.
David Odisho/Getty Images
That June, Vanity Fair reported that Holmes and Evans had tied the knot in a secretive wedding ceremony.
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Business Insider
Source: Vanity Fair
Evans’ parents were reportedly “flabbergasted” at their son’s decision to marry Holmes, the Post reports.Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks with Jonathan Krim, global technology editor at the Wall Street Journal, at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live (WSJDLive) conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California, October 21, 2015.
REUTERS/Mike Blake
Source: New York Post
Since then, Evans has been a fixture in Holmes’ trial, accompanying her to court daily and even forming the crux of one of her Hail Mary attempts to avoid prison.
Nick Otto/AFP via Getty Images
After Holmes was convicted in January, she made several attempts to avoid prison time.
Peter DaSilva/Reuters
As the clock was running out with a scheduled sentencing date fast approaching, she requested a new trial on the grounds that a key government witness visited her home in August expressing regrets that his testimony had helped convict her.
The witness was Adam Rosendorff, who was Theranos’ lab director from April 2013 to November 2014. Holmes’ motion relied heavily on a recollection of the encounter documented by Evans, who spoke with Rosendorff when he appeared at their home.
In an email to Holmes’ attorneys recalling his encounter with Rosendorff, Evans wrote: “He said he feels guilty, it seemed like he was hurting. He said when he was called as a witness he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everybody look bad (in the company). He said that the government made things sound worse than they were when he was up on the stand during his testimony. He said he felt like he had done something wrong. And that this was weighing on him, He said he was having trouble sleeping.”
The judge agreed to postpone Holmes’ sentencing to hear Rosendorff out, giving Holmes a small victory, but it backfired on her when Rosendorff stood by his testimony in the hearing, saying, “She needs to pay her debt to society.”
Rosendorff explained that he’d felt bad for Holmes because of the possibility that her child, born last year, would grow up without a mother, but he stressed that his testimony was accurate.
Evans’ dad, William L. Evans, seen here in a black mask, even made headlines at Holmes’ trial one day.
NICK OTTO/AFP via Getty Images
NPR reported in September that a man who identified himself as a “concerned citizen” named Hanson defended Holmes to news reporters at her trial; in actuality, NPR reports, the man was the older Evans.
