Google founder Sergey Brin and Nicole Shanahan, confirm they are married

Billionaire Google founder Sergey Brin, 46, and patent lawyer Nicole Shanahan, 34, confirmed long-running rumors that they are married at a lunch last week in California. 

Shanahan, who gave birth to the couple’s first child last year, shared the news with guests while announcing the start of a $6 million study she and her husband’s family fund are underwriting into the harmful health effects women experience after menopause at the Buck Institute for Research.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy broke news of the nuptials, revealing that Shanahan married Brin – who Forbes just ranked as the seventh richest American with a fortune of $52.1 billion – in 2018, after three years of dating.

Unlike other Silicon Valley couples, Brin and Shanahan have made no secret of their relationship, choosing to go public with the news that they were dating by appearing on the red carpet of the 2016 Met Ball with Brin’s ex Anne Wojcicki and her then-beau Alex Rodriguez.

The carbon-conscious love square even arrived together in the same car, in a move that Vanity Fair later called ‘head-spinningly civilized.’ 

 

Here comes the bride: Nicole Shanahan revealed at a luncheon last week that she married Alphabet president Sergey Brin in 2018, confirming long held suspicions (pair above in 2016)

A Rod

S Brin

Ballers: The two have been dating since 2015 and made their first appearance as a couple at the 2016 Met Ball with his ex Anne Wojcicki and Alex Rodriguez (left, Brin and Shanahan in December 2016 on right)

Lovers: Brin and Wojcicki split in 2013 after she discovered email exchanges between him and Amanda Rosenberg, the twentysomething face of Google Glass (Brin and Rosenberg above)

Lovers: Brin and Wojcicki split in 2013 after she discovered email exchanges between him and Amanda Rosenberg, the twentysomething face of Google Glass (Brin and Rosenberg above)

Shanahan was a well established Silicon Valley player before she met the groom, having founded the patent management and valuation company ClearAccessIP in 2013.

The following year she was also named a Code X fellow at The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.

Shanahn was a Asian Studies major at the University of Puget Sound, and after graduating attended law school at Santa Clara University   

She also studied international trade at the National University of Singapore post-law school, and attended the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies just before enrolling at SCU.

Shanahan has been open about her struggles to conceive, which is why she has donated $100 million to reproductive studies. 

She did get pregnant around the time of the couple’s wedding however, and last year gave birth to a baby girl.

An heir: The 34-year-old lawyer and founder of ClearAccessIP gave birth to the couple's daughter last year (above in 2018)

An heir: The 34-year-old lawyer and founder of ClearAccessIP gave birth to the couple’s daughter last year (above in 2018)

That was the third child for Brin, whose ex Wojcicki also welcomed a child at almost the exact same time. 

Brin and Wojcicki, who is the founder of the genomics company 23andMe, began dating in 1998 and were married in swimsuits at a sand bar in the Bahamas in 2007.

The couple went on to have two children but separated after Wojcicki discovered emails between Brin and a young Google employee  named Amanda Rosenberg.

Brin’s British-born mistress had been working on the launch of the company’s disastrous Google Glass at the time, and she and Brin  were pictured together in September 2012 at Diane Von Furstenberg’s presentation at New York Fashion Week.

Photos from the event show Brin sitting front row with his wife during the show and then later posing backstage with Rosenberg. 

That affair eventually fizzled out, and by 2015 Brin was dating Shanahan.

That same year that the Alphabet president and Wojcicki officially filed for divorce, and Shanahan became the owner of a $2.2 million home. 

Hanging by a thread: Brin and Wojcicki (above in 2016)  married in swimsuits at a Bahamas sand bar in 2007, have two children and were close in the years after their 2015 divorce

Hanging by a thread: Brin and Wojcicki (above in 2016)  married in swimsuits at a Bahamas sand bar in 2007, have two children and were close in the years after their 2015 divorce

Digs: Shanahan became the owner of a $2.2 million home (above) around the same time the Brin's divorce was finalized

Digs: Shanahan became the owner of a $2.2 million home (above) around the same time the Brin’s divorce was finalized 

Vanity Fair explored Brin’s relationship with Rosenberg, who was also the public face of Google Glass, back in 2014.

The magazine reported that in late 2012 or early 2013, Wojcicki discovered emails between the two, and that by April Brin had moved out of their home before announcing their separation in August. 

Wojcicki remained in the couple’s $7million Los Altos home with their two children while Brin moved into their second Los Altos home so they can raise their children as a team.

Many close to the former couple said that Wojcicki was not interested in art or jewelry like some of the other Silicon Valley wives, and instead hoped to have a ‘normalized life.’

Friends also said that Wojcicki did not want a divorce, with the magazine noting; ‘The couple has a pre-nup, there’s more than enough money to go around, and she wouldn’t want to deal with courts and custody battles.’

It was when Brin started dating Shanahan that Wojcicki and Rodriguez became a very public pair, but that was short lived.

Wojcicki, whose company received early funding from her ex-husband, has achieved great success on her own with 23andMe, but it is believed that her test may have played a role in her divorce.

Brin learned through a spit test that he had a rare genetic mutation that increases the risk for Parkinson’s disease.

This revelation cause what one friend described as the ’emotional crisis’ that caused him to stray from his wife and into the arms of the much younger Rosenberg.

Wojcicki said she quickly realized however that she id not want to be mad at her husband, and the two had remained close until earlier this year. 

Court records that are filed under seal do show however that one of the parents filed for a protective order in February, and that a parenting coordinator has now been appointed to oversee the couple’s custody.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk