The New York Times Tried To Help Elizabeth Holmes Rehabilitate Her Image With A Profile

Elizabeth Holmes is headed to prison… soon. Maybe. Eventually. The Theranos fraudster was supposed to start serving her 11-year sentence on April 27, but she got it delayed with a last-minute appeal. Yesterday, The New York Times published a series of interviews with her entitled, “Liz Holmes Wants You to Forget About Elizabeth.” It’s the first time Elizabe- sorry, LIZ has spoken with the media since 2016, and Business Insider described the piece as an obvious attempt to rehabilitate her public image before she heads to the clink.

Liz Holmes wants you to know that she’s not as bad as people say. For example, Liz says she’s been doing 12-hour volunteer shifts at a rape crisis hotline for the last year. She tells The New York Times that she was motivated to do this based on her own history of abuse. Liz has said she was physically and emotionally abused (allegedly) by her ex/Theranos’ former chief operating officer, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. She also talked about being sexually assaulted at a frat party while she was a student at Stanford.

Elizabeth shared that before her criminal trial began, she and her partner, Billy Evans, spent six months on the road in an RV while prosecutors worked on her case. The couple slept in campgrounds and Walmart parking lots, working on her legal defense in between yoga and hiking. She said:

“Even though that period was a crisis and Theranos was my life and like my child, I gave everything I had to it,” Holmes told the Times. Once it was gone, “I also became free,” she added.

Elizabeth (sorry, sweetie, Liz ain’t sticking) also played the “I’m a devoted mother!” card for the jillionth time, and journalist Amy Chozik seemed to eat it all up. Amy, Billy, Elizabeth, and the couple’s two children strolled around the San Diego Zoo together, ate Mexican food, and walked Teddy the dog. Elizabeth also breastfed her baby, Invicta (!!!!!), in front of Amy while singing Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants.” She admitted that her deep-voiced, black turtleneck persona wasn’t “authentic,” and she’s since become a changed woman.

Amy Chozik described “Liz” as “authentic and sympathetic,” “gentle and charismatic.” Her editor joked that Amy “got rolled.” Amy disagreed until she spoke with one of Elizabeth’s longtime friends, who claimed that Elizabeth may have started with “genuine intentions” at Theranos but shouldn’t be entirely believed. Um, ya think? But even though this insider basically told Amy got played, her piece was decidedly pro-Elizabeth.

Unfortunately for the Liz Holmes PR machine, people on Twitter, including journalist Soledad O’Brien, were not impressed:

But really Amy Choziac is consistently crappy

— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) May 7, 2023

This is how the NYT decided to portray Elizabeth Holmes in a fluffy puff piece profile about how she’s a wife and Mom who volunteers at a rape crisis center. Reminder that she is a convicted felon who’s soon to start a sentence of more than a decade in federal prison. pic.twitter.com/hwhf6ocsM3

— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) May 8, 2023

for every glowing puff piece you see trying to rehabilitate Elizabeth Holmes’s image, i want you to remember something

she personally approved a 15 month clinical trial using a device she knew to be useless, to measure cancer drug levels in the blood of terminal cancer patients https://t.co/eXVCQPlQF6

— juni 🦨θ∆ 🔜 Furality (@JUNIUS_64) May 7, 2023

Sorry, Elizabeth, I watched that entire Amanda Seyfried mini-series and my opinion ain’t gonna be swayed by a New York Times article I can’t even access cuz it’s behind a paywall (I burned my free articles on Vulture’s Real Housewives recaps).

Pic: ACE/INFphoto.com