It looks like one of the country’s richest bachelors is about to be taken off the market…
“Like the recent wedding of Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, to Anne Wojcicki, much is being kept secret…”
San Francisco — Google Inc. co-founder and one of the world’s wealthiest men Larry Page is planning to tie the nuptial knot with his girlfriend, Lucy Southworth, at a ceremony next month that is steeped in secrecy.
“The San Francisco Chronicle broke the story Tuesday, saying that the event is scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 8 at an undisclosed location.”
Page, 34, founded Google as a Stanford University computer science doctoral student and is now among the world’s wealthiest individuals, with a fortune worth around $20 billion. He is, by a wide margin, Silicon Valley’s richest bachelor.
Rumors are already swirling about where Page and Southworth will tie the knot were published in The Chronicle, followed last month by a more detailed account in a Fortune magazine blog, but the publication quickly removed the post.
“The item suggested that the ceremony was to be held overseas because Guests have been advised to have their passports available to travel internationally, the newspaper said.”
A spokeswoman for Fortune did not provide details about why the posting was deleted.
“Could it be another Caribbean wedding? — Or maybe a mountain getaway? With access to a large private jet and a virtually unlimited checkbook, the event could take place virtually anywhere.”
“Do not expect this to be a small, intimate wedding.”
“Earlier this month, Silicon Valley celebrity gossip site valleywag.com reported that the two would marry on “Necker Island,” the Caribbean hideaway owned by Virgin Group billionaire Richard Branson, on Dec. 7.”
Branson does own a private island, called Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, but it is anybody’s guess whether that is the planned nuptial location.
So who is the lucky bride who is about to marry a billionaire many times over? Very little has been published about Southworth.
Since 2003, Page’s girlfriend Lucy Southworth is a bio-medical informatics doctoral student at Stanford and has been dating the Google co-founder for well over a year. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and holds a Master of Science from Oxford University.
They have been seen at parties around the Bay Area, including a dinner for Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and his wife, Anna, hosted by jet-setter Denise Hale at the Ritz-Carlton in October 2006, and in Hollywood at the Vanity Fair post-Oscar party in February this year.
Hale, who counts Princess Michael of Kent, Israel Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta and actor Michael Caine among her friends and has watched many a high-profile marriage come and go, gives Southworth and Page high marks – and hope.
“They are a very-well matched couple,” Hale said. “She is stunning and bright, and he is very attractive and bright.”
“What else do you want? They are very much in love, and they are going to be the next great couple to do great things together. It is a great combination.”
Many current and former Google employees are expected to attend the wedding, along with Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin business empire, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, according to sources familiar with the guest list.
Former Vice-President Al Gore too was invited but he expressed his inability to come as he will be in Oslo, Norway, on December 10 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, Gore said he is hoping to make an appearance at the wedding using one of the staples of the modern, high-tech world: video conferencing.
“Larry Page allowed that, on the list of excuses, that was acceptable,” Gore said in an interview.
Six months ago, Google’s other founder, Sergey Brin, married longtime girlfriend Anne Wojcicki, a biotech entrepreneur. They successfully kept the ceremony, held in the Caribbean, a secret until after the wedding was over.
The San Jose Mercury News called the wedding “so hush-hush that word did not leak out for more than a week.”
Guests were brought to the Caribbean on a private Boeing 767 owned by Brin and Page, but they were not told their destination, according to the Mercury News.
The couple got married on a sandbar off a secluded island. Most guests took a boat to the sandbar, but the couple, both 33 years old, swam to the ceremony. She wore a white bathing suit. His was black.
“Google later invested $3.9 million in Wojcicki’s company, 23andMe.”
Since the firm went public in 2004, its stock has skyrocketed to nearly $750 a share and it has become one of the world’s most highly valued companies. Following a week of rocky trading, shares closed at $660.55, up 4.5 percent on Tuesday.
Page and Brin were co-ranked at No. 5 in this year Forbes’ 400 list of U.S. billionaires. Each is estimated to have a net worth of $18.5 billion.
Southworth did not respond to requests for comment. A Google spokesperson declined to confirm the engagement.