Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife of six years and 23andme co-founder Anne Wojcicki have separated.
The tech couple, both 40 have separated and unnamed sources claim Brin is romantically involved with an unidentified Google employee.
A Silicon Valley paper claims the two have been living apart for several months but are good friends and partners.
With two children together, Anne Wojcicki, who is a co-founder and CEO 23andMe, a biotech startup which sells personal DNA test kits and gives detailed reports on peoples’ genetic makeup, traits and health conditions, also backed by Brin and Google might be in for a rough time if they divorce. Anne Wojcicki’s sister, Susan Wojcicki, is a top Google employee as senior vice president for advertising and commerce and is the one who introduced Brin to Anne as Brin and Page rented part of her Menlo Park home when they started Google.
Recently living in Los Altos Hills, the couple married in swimsuits at a low-profile ceremony in the Bahamas in 2007.
There are claims that a senior Google executive, who previously dated that Google employee who Brin is now seeing is leaving Google and the sources clarify that the leaving of Android vice president Hugo Barra has nothing to do with Brin’s alleged lover.
Google is in safe hands as the executive responsibilities are run by Larry Page, Google co-founder and CEO. Brin who is also extremely influential at Google runs Google X, responsible for Google Glass,Internet balloons and self-driving cars. Brin, takes home $1 a year from Google just as Page. However, Brin controls nearly 28 percent of the voting shares in Google and is worth more than $20 billion.
His stake in Google is safe as him and Anne signed a prenuptial agreement before their wedding.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley and the the entire community will miss a great couple, the two have been good to the society, giving away $223 million last year in charities. They also founded Brin Wojcicki Foundation which gives to human rights and anti-poverty programs. They have also donated to research into Parkinson’s disease. Early this year, they joined forces with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan and other tech couples to launch the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.