Oracle founder Larry Ellison hit a major personal crossroads in 1986, when his first wife, Barbara Boothe, filed for divorce just three months after their daughter Megan was born. According to a report by People.com, the split arrived at a demanding moment in Ellison's life, as he was juggling Oracle's early growth with the responsibilities of a young family.
A marriage that began at the office
Ellison and Boothe met while she was working as a receptionist at Relational Software, the company that would later become Oracle. The two married in 1983, the same year their son David was born. Three years later, on January 31, 1986, the couple welcomed a daughter, Megan. Barbara filed for divorce that April, just months after Megan's birth, bringing the three-year marriage to a close.
Ellison on fatherhood and staying friends
In Matthew Symonds' 2003 book, "Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle," Ellison spoke about wanting to preserve a friendly relationship with Boothe for the sake of their children's wellbeing. He also described how becoming a father had changed him, saying it made him more attuned to his children's emotional needs and, over time, a more thoughtful partner and friend in general. He framed the shift simply as a process of maturing.
Life after the split
Following the divorce, Boothe took on the role of primary caregiver, raising David and Megan largely outside the public eye even as Ellison's fortune and profile in tech grew rapidly. She nurtured an early love of cinema in both children, reportedly amassing a collection of more than 3,000 VHS tapes that the siblings watched repeatedly, including titles such as 'Jurassic Park' and 'Back to the Future'.
From childhood movie nights to Hollywood careers
That early exposure to film would go on to define both siblings' professional paths. David Ellison went on to found Skydance Media, the studio behind franchises such as 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Top Gun: Maverick'. Megan Ellison founded Annapurna Pictures, producing acclaimed titles including 'Zero Dark Thirty', 'Her', and 'American Hustle', and earning multiple Academy Award nominations in the process.
Ellison, now among the wealthiest people in the world, has gone on to marry and divorce several more times since his split from Boothe.
