What Do We Know About Sunny Balwani's First Wife?
The relationship was far from healthy. As Reuters reported in 2021, Holmes (pictured) told the court at her own trial that Balwani was manipulative and abusive; while she didn't use the word "rape," she alleged that he had forced her to have sex against her will. She also alleged that he had bullied her, commanding her to "kill the old Elizabeth" by waking at 4 a.m., and submitting to his need for control.
There is no shortage of men who abuse women like this, and there is no reason to doubt the victim — except this: that Holmes and her legal team were, as Reuters described, trying to paint Balwani as a Svengali, a wicked puppet-master who bore part of Holmes' responsibility.
Both can be true, of course. According to Reuters and other sources, Holmes and Balwani met when she was 18 and he 38. She was a fledgling entrepreneur, a recent drop-out from Stanford University, due partly to the emotional devastation of being raped. He was established in the tech world. "Established," indeed, is an understatement: according to The Cut, one of his recent deals had earned him $40 million, and he drove a Lamborghini. He was also, at the time, married.
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