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The yin to his yang: Priscilla Chan opens up about Mark Zuckerberg – husband, non-profit partner and Facebook founder – and why she hated Harvard

Chan met Zuckerberg at Harvard and liked him, but was horrified by his lack of concern for rules – ‘For strait-laced Priscilla, he was a bit of a rebel’

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Priscilla Chan, wife of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, talks about going on weekly dates and giving away 99 per cent of their wealth. Photo: The Sunday Times/News Licensing

Published: 9:15am, 6 Nov 2021Updated: 9:18am, 6 Nov 2021

My interview with Priscilla Chan comes in yet another bad week for her husband’s company. Facebook, the social network Mark Zuckerberg founded when he and Chan were students at Harvard together, has been headline news, and not in a good way.

I keep expecting Chan to cancel, but she doesn’t. Instead, her office asks me to avoid asking questions about Facebook, because she cannot answer on behalf of her husband’s business.

That’s not going to be easy when a media and political firestorm is raging and Facebook is drawing comparisons with Big Tobacco over allegations that it put profits before the health and safety of its customers and deploys algorithms that amplify divisive and potentially harmful content.

I’m meeting Chan in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, not far from the couple’s home in Palo Alto, in the shiny new Redwood City headquarters of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Through CZI, Chan and her husband plan to give away 99 per cent of their wealth. Given they are the largest shareholders in a trillion-dollar company, that is a lot of money.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan arrive at the State Dinner for China’s President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan at the White House on 25 September, 2015. Photo: EPA

They have big ambitions – “to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century” and create a more equitable society in which all children have equal opportunities. So far, they have given away more than US$3 billion.

Decorated with brightly coloured murals, paintings by local artists and screens flashing up stories of inspiring women, the offices are reminiscent of a well-funded primary school.