Elizabeth Holmes has been reunited with her two young children during a family visit to the Texas prison where she is serving her sentence for fraud, ahead of an approved move to a halfway house in Austin next summer.
The former Theranos founder spent visiting hours with five-year-old William and three-year-old Invicta at Federal Prison Camp Bryan. Her daughter was only three months old and her son was still a toddler when Holmes began her sentence in May 2023.
Holmes, 42, is expected to move to a halfway house in DeValle, Texas, bringing her closer to her children and her fiancé, Billy Evans. Evans, 33, has moved to a rented home in Austin’s South Lamar neighbourhood, reportedly worth $3.5 million, to be nearer to her.
Evans did not attend the latest visit, with the children accompanied by Holmes’s parents, Noel, 75, and Christian Holmes, 80. The family spent time together outside the minimum-security women’s prison, where weekend visits take place.
Holmes has previously said that weekly visits from Evans and the children were her favourite part of life in prison.
She was sentenced to 11 years after being convicted on four counts of criminal fraud, although her term has since been reduced by roughly half for good behaviour. Her current release prospects include the planned transfer to the Austin halfway house, while a further appeal or presidential pardon would be needed for an earlier release from Bryan.
Documentary follows Holmes’s final weeks of freedom
The family reunion comes as a trailer has been released for You Can See Everything, a documentary about Holmes made by Nathan Fielder.
The film, produced by A24, focuses on the month before Holmes reported to prison, when she was attempting to remain out of custody while confronting the prospect of being separated from her children. Fielder moved into her home in Del Mar, California, during filming.
The documentary received a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this month. In the trailer, Fielder and Holmes are shown facing one another as they discuss whether she is being genuine.
“I don’t have anything to deceive you on,” Holmes says. “Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
When Fielder asks whether she is being real, Holmes replies: “I’m always being real.”
The project offers a portrait of the life Holmes was facing before entering prison, in contrast with her present routine at Federal Prison Camp Bryan and the limited time she has with her family.
Once celebrated in Silicon Valley as the founder of a company valued at $9 billion, Holmes now works behind bars as a re-entry clerk and law clerk. She also teaches French to fellow inmates.
Her re-entry work involves helping prisoners prepare CVs and find government assistance programmes, while as a law clerk she assists with legal cases, compassionate-release applications and appeals.
Holmes remains liable for $452 million in restitution to investors she was convicted of defrauding, including Rupert Murdoch. Payments are currently being taken from her prison earnings at a rate of $25 a month, with the amount due to rise to $250 a month after her release unless prosecutors succeed in seeking a larger share of her future earnings.
