Who is alleged 5th wife of Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, 47 years her senior?

Billionaire Larry Ellison (R) and a woman identified as Jolin Zhu, his alleged fifth wife, watch Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland play against Dominic Thiem of Austria in their quarter final match during day eleven of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 16, 2017 in Indian Wells, California. Photo handout via AFP

According to the Daily Mail, Zhu, who also goes by her legal name Keren Zhu, arrived in the U.S. in 2010 to pursue her international studies degree.

She spent her first year in the U.S. living in modest student housing at Willowtree Apartments in Ann Arbor, sharing a space with Ang Zhu, 36, a PhD candidate in nuclear engineering who now lives in Hong Kong. It remains unclear what their relationship was, as those familiar with Ang, including his PhD supervisor, a professor, and a fellow student who co-authored papers with him, expressed uncertainty when Zhu’s name was brought up.

Even Zhu’s classmates found her enigmatic, with none of those contacted by the Daily Mail recalling her from their college days.

Following her 2012 graduation, Zhu relocated to the Bay Area in California, where she briefly lived in an apartment close to Oracle’s then-headquarters in Redwood Shores, but her neighbors did not know who she was, adding to her mysterious aura.

Zhu’s connection with Ellison dates back to at least 2017, as she was seen with him at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California in photos taken by the press. At the time, Ellison was still technically married to his fourth wife Nikita Kahn, although they had separated in 2016 and their divorce was finalized in May 2020.

Zhu has made few public appearances with Ellison, with the last photographs of her taken during the 2019 BNP Paribas Tennis Open. Since then, she has kept a low profile, amid speculations that Ellison has mentioned becoming a father to two toddlers during this period.

Now a U.S. citizen, Zhu and Ellison are registered to vote as independents from the same address: their expansive 33-bedroom, 38-bathroom estate in Florida.

However, news of their alleged marriage was only widely publicized earlier this month through a statement from Champions Circle, a booster group for the University of Michigan football team. The statement on the group’s website announced that Michigan had secured Bryce Underwood, a top high school quarterback from Louisiana State University, highlighting Ellison and Zhu, referred to as his wife, as pivotal in the recruitment.

"I want to personally thank Larry and his wife Jolin who were instrumental in making this happen by providing Champions Circle with invaluable guidance and financial resources," Nate Forbes, chairman of Champions Circle.

Zhu is quoted in the statement as saying: "I am a big fan of the University of Michigan and Michigan Athletics. We are excited to support our student-athletes, so they can go compete at the highest level in college sports."

Ellison’s marital history includes his first wife Adda Quinn, whom he was married to from 1967 to 1974. He married Nancy Wheeler Jenkins in 1977, and they divorced a year later.

In 1983, he married Barbara Boothe, a former receptionist at Relational Software, Inc., a company he founded, and they divorced in 1986. He was married to romance novelist Melanie Craft from 2003 until their divorce in 2010.

Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 and served as its CEO from then until 2014. He is currently the chief technology officer and executive chairman.

As of June 2024, Forbes lists Oracle as the second-largest company by market capitalization in the software and programming sector, while Ellison’s net worth is estimated at US$218.3 billion as of Dec. 16.