She was working a receptionist job at a small software startup. The company had about 20 people. Nobody outside Silicon Valley had heard of it.
The man who ran it was loud, ambitious, and not yet famous. His name was Larry Ellison. The company was Relational Software Inc. It would later become Oracle Corporation — one of the largest technology companies on earth, worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Barbara Boothe met him there. She married him. She had two children with him. She divorced him three years later when the company was just starting its rise. And then she completely disappeared from public view for the next fifteen years.
When she surfaced again, it was not in a courtroom or a tabloid. It was because she had quietly transformed 200 acres of Oregon orchard into one of the most impressive equestrian facilities in the Pacific Northwest — and was listing it for $19.5 million.
That is the Barbara Boothe story. A woman who was present at the beginning of a $100 billion empire, walked away from it on her own terms, and built something entirely her own that had nothing to do with the man who became one of the richest people in human history.
Bio at a Glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Barbara Boothe |
| Birth Period | Early 1960s (exact date never disclosed) |
| Birthplace | United States (specific location not confirmed) |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
| Religion | Christian (reported; never confirmed by Boothe herself) |
| Education | Lincoln High School; Stanford University (field of study not documented) |
| Early career | Receptionist, Relational Software Inc. (later Oracle Corporation) |
| Ex-husband | Larry Ellison (m. 1983 – div. 1986) |
| Marriage number | Second wife of Larry Ellison (his four marriages: Adda Quinn 1967–1974, Barbara Boothe 1983–1986, Barbara Bass 1990–1996, Melanie Craft 2003–2010) |
| Children | David Ellison (b. 1983), Megan Ellison (b. 1986) |
| Post-divorce life | Equestrian entrepreneur, Oregon |
| Farm | Wild Turkey Farm, Wilsonville, Oregon (200 acres) |
| Farm purchased | 2001 for $2.995 million |
| Farm listed for sale | 2021 for $19.5 million (Christie’s International Real Estate) |
| Subsequent marriages | None confirmed |
| Social media | None confirmed |
| Net worth | Not publicly documented; farm listing alone suggests multi-million range |
The Birth Date Problem and the Stanford Claim
Barbara Boothe’s exact birth date has never been publicly disclosed. That is confirmed across all credible sources — it is a deliberate privacy choice, not an oversight.
Most sources estimate she was born in the early 1960s. If she had her son David in 1983, she was likely born between 1960 and 1965 — making her somewhere between 61 and 66 years old as of 2026. That range is the honest answer.
Multiple sources claim she attended Lincoln High School and graduated from Stanford University. The Stanford claim is significant because it is stated confidently across multiple biography sites without a single source citing verification. Stanford does not publish alumni lists publicly. No interview, no official document, no Stanford publication has confirmed Barbara Boothe as a graduate.
The Stanford claim is plausible. It is consistent with the Bay Area setting of her early career. It is consistent with a high-achieving woman who ended up at a tech company in its earliest days. But it remains an unverified claim that has circulated through copy-paste biography content without primary documentation.
The Lincoln High School claim similarly lacks any documented source. It appears in multiple sites but traces to no primary documentation.
The honest position: she is educated. The specific institutions have not been verified from primary sources.
The Oracle Origin: A Receptionist at the Beginning of Everything
To understand Barbara Boothe’s place in technology history — even if only a peripheral one — you need to understand what Oracle was before it was Oracle.
arry Ellison co-founded Software Development Laboratories in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates. They renamed it Relational Software Inc. in 1979. The company was building a relational database management system — technology that would eventually dominate enterprise computing worldwide. By 1982–1983, when Barbara Boothe worked there as a receptionist, the company was small, scrappy, and not yet publicly traded.
Oracle went public in March 1986. The IPO made Ellison extraordinarily wealthy overnight. Barbara and Larry divorced that same year — around the same time Oracle made its IPO. The timing is documented and noted by multiple sources.
She was there at the beginning. She left as it became enormous.
Her Role at the Company
She was a receptionist. Multiple sources confirm this. She was not in engineering. She was not in marketing leadership. She was not in executive management.
One source — a content farm site — describes her as a “marketing executive” who later became a receptionist. This makes no professional sense as a career progression and appears to be an error. Every credible source consistently places her role as a receptionist. The “marketing executive” label is almost certainly fabricated to inflate her professional standing.
What her job as a receptionist actually means: she was present at a critical early moment in Silicon Valley history. She watched a small company grow from the inside. She met its founder in that context. The job itself was modest. The moment it represented in tech history was significant — though that significance was not apparent to anyone at the time.
The Marriage to Larry Ellison: Three Years That Changed Everything
The Ellison Marriage Sequence Nobody Reports Correctly
Larry Ellison has been married four times. The order matters because multiple biography sites get it wrong.
His marriages:
- Adda Quinn: 1967–1974 (first wife)
- Barbara Boothe: 1983–1986 (second wife)
- Barbara Bass: 1990–1996 (third wife)
- Melanie Craft: 2003–2010 (fourth wife)
Barbara Boothe was his second wife — not his third, as at least one biography site incorrectly states. There was a gap between his first and second marriages of nine years. During that time, Ellison was building his company.
Barbara and Larry married in 1983. The same year she is listed as having worked at Relational Software Inc. The relationship began at the workplace and moved quickly to marriage.
The Divorce in 1986 and Its Timing
The divorce was finalized in 1986 — the same year Oracle went public.
The reasons cited in multiple sources: rumors that Ellison was having affairs with younger women during the company’s ascent. One source specifically notes the affairs “around the time Oracle made its initial public offering.” This is consistent across multiple credible outlets who covered the divorce for background in stories about Ellison’s personal history.
Ellison has never specifically addressed his divorce from Barbara publicly in any documented interview. Barbara has never addressed it publicly either. The affair rumors are the consistent reported cause — consistent enough across enough independent sources to be credible, while remaining technically unconfirmed by either party.
One source lists the divorce year as 1985. This contradicts the majority of sources, which say 1986. The 1986 date is consistent with the Oracle IPO timeline and is supported by the most credible sources including the Wall Street Journal-cited reporting about the Oregon farm sale.
Two Children at the Edge of a Fortune
David Ellison was born in 1983 — the same year his parents married. Megan Ellison was born in 1986 — the year they divorced.
Both children were born into the early Oracle years. By the time they were old enough to understand wealth, their father was one of the richest men alive. Their mother had chosen a different path entirely.
David Ellison founded Skydance Media in 2010 — a production company that has produced major Hollywood blockbusters including Top Gun: Maverick, the Mission: Impossible franchise, and multiple Paramount Pictures collaborations. He acquired Paramount Global in 2024 in a landmark merger.
Megan Ellison founded Annapurna Pictures in 2011 — a production company known for critically acclaimed, risk-taking cinema. Annapurna produced Zero Dark Thirty, Her, American Hustle, Phantom Thread, and Booksmart, among other significant films. She has received multiple Academy Award nominations as a producer.
Two children of a three-year marriage between a receptionist and a startup founder became two of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Barbara raised them. She did not do it in the spotlight. She did not do it with her father’s billions as a primary tool. And both of them have publicly credited their mother’s role in shaping who they became.
Wild Turkey Farm: The Real Barbara Boothe Story
Why She Discovered the Land
Barbara Boothe has loved horses since childhood. One source describes her saving money throughout the year as a girl specifically for the opportunity to ride during family trips to Oregon. This is the kind of detail that, whether precisely accurate or slightly embellished in the retelling, points toward a genuine lifelong passion.
After her divorce and through the 1990s, she lived with her children in Woodside, California — a horse country community in the San Francisco Bay Area. She raised David and Megan there. The road they lived on was Turkey Farm Lane.
In 2001, she was attending a horse show at a farm in Wilsonville, Oregon, when she came across a neighboring property. It was 200 acres of hazelnut tree orchard — no horses, no barns, no infrastructure. Just land.
She bought it for $2.995 million.
Then she spent ten years building it.
What She Built
The transformation of Wild Turkey Farm from orchard to world-class equestrian facility took nearly a decade of active planning, construction, and development. She was personally involved throughout. She was not an absentee investor watching contractors build something for her. She was there, making decisions, shaping the space.
By 2011, when she finally moved in, Wild Turkey Farm had become:
A 10,000-square-foot main house with five bedrooms, six bathrooms, four fireplaces, stone floors, cherry and cedar wood interiors, and large windows overlooking green fields. An infinity pool on the property. A 2,500-square-foot manager’s residence for on-site staff. Five specialized barns — a retirement barn, a training barn, a mare and foal barn, a stallion barn, and an additional facility. 97 horse stalls. 33 fenced pastures. An indoor riding arena for year-round training. An outdoor veterinary laboratory.
By the time she listed it for sale, more than 90 horses lived there — none included in the asking price. More than 100 foals had been born on the property.
She named it Wild Turkey Farm — a deliberate tribute to Turkey Farm Lane in Woodside, where she had raised her children. The new name connected the new life to the family life that preceded it.
Why She Named It What She Named It
This detail is worth slowing down on. She did not name the farm something grand and aspirational. She named it after the road where she had raised two children after a failed marriage — a road named Turkey Farm Lane.
That is a woman who values continuity over reinvention. She was not running from her past. She was carrying it into her future. The horse farm was not a fresh start. It was an extension of who she had always been, built on land that connected back to her children’s childhood.
The $19.5 Million Listing
In 2021, Barbara listed Wild Turkey Farm for sale at $19.5 million through Christie’s International Real Estate.
She bought it for $2.995 million in 2001. She listed it for $19.5 million in 2021. That is a nearly 550% increase in value over 20 years — driven not by market forces alone but by the decade of construction and development she personally oversaw.
Christie’s noted that luxury property prices in the area generally ran in the $3–$5 million range. The $19.5 million asking price reflected the extraordinary scale of the equestrian infrastructure she had built — infrastructure that did not exist when she bought the land.
Whether the farm sold, at what price, and whether she remains in Wilsonville, Oregon, is not confirmed in any public record as of 2026.
The Divorce Settlement: What Is and Is Not Documented
Barbara Boothe divorced Larry Ellison in 1986. At that point, Oracle was publicly traded but Ellison was not yet anywhere near the astronomical wealth he would later accumulate. In the mid-1980s, his net worth was significant but not yet in the hundreds of billions.
The terms of the divorce settlement were never publicly disclosed. No court filing, no legal document, no interview has confirmed what financial arrangement was reached.
What is known: Barbara had the financial means to purchase a $2.995 million property in 2001, spend approximately a decade developing it with extensive construction, and list it for $19.5 million in 2021. This suggests significant independent wealth — either from the divorce settlement, from investments, from other income sources, or from some combination.
Whether she received a substantial divorce settlement from Ellison, or whether she built her wealth independently, is not documented in any public record.
Several sites attempt to estimate her net worth — ranging from vague “several million dollars” to one specific claim of $40 million. The $40 million figure appears in one source and is listed as matching Larry Ellison’s net worth exactly — which is an obvious red flag suggesting the number was fabricated by symmetry rather than research.
The most honest assessment: she has multi-million dollar wealth demonstrated by documented property transactions. The specific total is unknown.
What the Internet Gets Wrong About Barbara Boothe
“She divorced in 1985” — One source gives this year. The majority of credible sources, including the Wall Street Journal-cited reporting on the Oregon farm, confirm 1986. The 1986 date aligns with Oracle’s IPO year and is more credible.
“She was Larry Ellison’s third wife” — False. She was his second wife. The order: Adda Quinn (first, 1967–1974), Barbara Boothe (second, 1983–1986), Barbara Bass (third, 1990–1996), Melanie Craft (fourth, 2003–2010).
“She worked as a marketing executive who later became a receptionist” — This is illogical as a career progression and appears in one source. Every other source consistently describes her as a receptionist at Relational Software Inc. The “marketing executive” label is almost certainly fabricated.
“She is the mother of David and Megan Ellison, who are currently the third-generation producers of Annapurna” — Annapurna was founded by Megan Ellison, the second generation. There is no third generation. This error appears in content describing the children’s careers.
“Her net worth is $40 million” — This figure matches what one site lists for Lisa Niemi’s net worth — suggesting the number was copied from a different person’s profile and placed in Barbara’s. No documentation supports this specific figure for Barbara.
“She appeared in The Laytons (1948)” — IMDb lists a Barbara Boothe who was a writer on a 1948 British television production. This is almost certainly a completely different person born decades before the Barbara Boothe in this article. The IMDb entry predates Oracle, Silicon Valley, Larry Ellison’s career, and Barbara Boothe’s own birth. This is a different person with the same name.
“She had a marketing or corporate career after her divorce” — Multiple sites describe her post-divorce career in vague terms, attributing corporate achievements to her with no documentation. The confirmed post-divorce chapter of her life is the Oregon farm. No significant corporate career has been documented.
Larry Ellison in 2026: The Contrast That Defines the Story
Larry Ellison is one of the wealthiest people in human history. As of 2025, his net worth is estimated at approximately $150–$200 billion — fluctuating with Oracle’s stock price and his other investments. He owns approximately 98% of Lanai, the sixth-largest Hawaiian island. He has competed in the America’s Cup sailing race. He has invested in Formula 1 racing. He is Oracle’s executive chairman and CTO.
He married and divorced four times. He is currently in a long-term relationship with actress and singer Nikita Kahn.
Barbara Boothe left this world in 1986. She was present at the very beginning — before the IPO, before the billions, before Lanai. She met the man before anyone knew who he would become.
And she chose 200 acres in Oregon and 90 horses over any of what came after.
The Children’s Careers: What Barbara Built as a Mother
David Ellison — Skydance Media
David Ellison was born in 1983. He founded Skydance Media in 2010. The company has produced major blockbuster films including Top Gun: Maverick, the rebooted Mission: Impossible franchise, World War Z, and multiple other large-scale productions. In 2024, Skydance merged with Paramount Global — placing David Ellison at the helm of one of Hollywood’s most historic studios. The deal was finalized in January 2025.
David has largely attributed his drive and work ethic to his mother. He grew up not in his father’s Silicon Valley empire but in Woodside, California, where Barbara raised him with an emphasis on work, purpose, and authenticity.
Megan Ellison — Annapurna Pictures
Megan Ellison was born in 1986 — the year her parents divorced. She founded Annapurna Pictures in 2011. The company’s filmography includes Zero Dark Thirty, Her, American Hustle, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, Booksmart, and Promising Young Woman — films that consistently prioritize artistic vision over commercial formula.
Annapurna has received numerous Academy Award nominations. In 2019 it expanded into television, co-producing HBO’s Euphoria in its early stages. In 2023, it entered financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy protection before restructuring. Megan remains at the company’s helm.
Both children have spoken about the values their mother instilled in them — a preference for substance over spectacle, quality over volume, purpose over prestige. Those values are visible in their professional choices. Both work in film, but their approaches differ significantly. What they share is a seriousness of purpose that reads as distinctly unlike the typical Hollywood legacy-child story.
Where She Stands in 2026
As of 2026, Barbara Boothe is approximately 61–66 years old. She has not remarried. No confirmed public relationship since her divorce from Ellison in 1986 exists in any verified source.
She listed Wild Turkey Farm for $19.5 million in 2021. Whether the sale was completed and at what price is not confirmed in any public record. If she sold, the proceeds represent extraordinary returns on her investment. If she retained the property, she remains one of Oregon’s most significant equestrian landowners.
She has no social media presence. She has given no press interviews. She has not appeared at any public event connected to her children’s high-profile careers. She did not attend David Ellison’s Paramount merger press events. She does not appear on red carpets. She has not written a memoir.
She is, in 2026, exactly as private as she was in 1987, in 1999, in 2010, and in 2021.
Final Words
Barbara Boothe was at one of the most significant moments in technology history and chose to walk away from everything it produced.
She was present at the founding days of Oracle. She married its founder before he was rich. She divorced him before he became one of the most powerful people on earth. She took their children, moved to California horse country, raised them with values that produced two genuinely serious Hollywood producers, and then spent a decade building a horse farm in Oregon from scratch.
She bought hazelnut orchard land for $3 million. She spent ten years turning it into something worth $19.5 million. She did it because she loves horses — not because she was trying to prove something to anyone.
The internet wants her story to be about Larry Ellison. About the billionaire she married and divorced. About the money she might have received and the life she might have lived if she had stayed.
The real story is different. It is about a woman who was smart enough, or lucky enough, or both, to get out of a situation before it consumed her. Who raised two children who are now reshaping Hollywood. Who built something with her own hands and her own passion on land that she chose for herself.
Larry Ellison owns an island. Barbara Boothe built a farm for horses.
Neither is wrong. Only one is genuinely hers.
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FAQ: 12 Real Questions About Barbara Boothe
1. Who is Barbara Boothe? An American woman born in the early 1960s, best known as the second ex-wife of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and the mother of Hollywood producers David and Megan Ellison. She worked as a receptionist at Relational Software Inc. — the company that became Oracle — before marrying Ellison in 1983. She divorced him in 1986 and has lived privately ever since, most notably building Wild Turkey Farm, a 200-acre equestrian facility in Wilsonville, Oregon.
2. How did Barbara Boothe meet Larry Ellison? She worked as a receptionist at Relational Software Inc. — the startup Ellison had co-founded that would later become Oracle Corporation. They met in the workplace and began a relationship that led to marriage in 1983.
3. Which wife of Larry Ellison was Barbara Boothe? She was his second wife. Ellison married Adda Quinn first, from 1967 to 1974. Barbara Boothe was second, from 1983 to 1986. Barbara Bass was third, from 1990 to 1996. Melanie Craft was fourth, from 2003 to 2010.
4. Why did they divorce? The reported reason is Ellison’s alleged affairs with younger women around the time Oracle made its initial public offering in 1986. Neither Barbara nor Larry has publicly confirmed the specific reason. The affair rumor is consistent across multiple independent sources that covered the divorce.
5. What are Barbara Boothe’s children doing now? Her son David Ellison founded Skydance Media in 2010 and completed a landmark merger with Paramount Global in 2024–2025, becoming the head of one of Hollywood’s most storied studios. Her daughter Megan Ellison founded Annapurna Pictures in 2011, which has produced award-winning films including Zero Dark Thirty, Her, and Promising Young Woman. Both are among the most powerful producers in Hollywood.
6. What is Wild Turkey Farm? A 200-acre equestrian breeding and training facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, that Barbara purchased for $2.995 million in 2001 and spent ten years developing before moving in 2011. At its peak, it housed over 90 horses and had produced more than 100 foals. The facility includes a 10,000-square-foot main house, five barns, 97 stalls, 33 pastures, an indoor riding arena, an outdoor vet lab, and an infinity pool. She listed it for $19.5 million through Christie’s International Real Estate in 2021. She named it after Turkey Farm Lane in Woodside, California, where she had raised her children.
7. Did Barbara Boothe attend Stanford University? Multiple biography sites claim she attended Lincoln High School and graduated from Stanford University. Neither claim has been confirmed by any primary source — no Stanford publication, alumni record, or interview confirms this. The claims are plausible but unverified.
8. Has Barbara Boothe remarried? No. No credible source documents any subsequent marriage or confirmed public relationship since her divorce from Larry Ellison in 1986.
9. What is Barbara Boothe’s net worth? Not publicly documented. Her demonstrated financial capacity includes purchasing a $2.995 million property in 2001, spending approximately a decade developing it, and listing it for $19.5 million in 2021. Some sites claim $40 million — this figure appears to be fabricated or copied from another person’s profile. The multi-million dollar range is consistent with documented property transactions; the specific total is unknown.
10. Is Barbara Boothe the same person as the Barbara Boothe listed on IMDb? No. IMDb lists a Barbara Boothe as a writer on The Laytons from 1948. This is almost certainly a different person with the same name — the 1948 production date predates Oracle, Silicon Valley, and the birth of the Barbara Boothe in this article by decades.
11. Why did Barbara Boothe name her farm Wild Turkey Farm? She named it after Turkey Farm Lane — the road in Woodside, California, where she lived with her children after her divorce from Larry Ellison. The name connected her new life in Oregon to the family life she had built in California. It was a deliberate sentimental choice, not a random label.
12. Where is Barbara Boothe now in 2026? She is believed to be living in or near Wilsonville, Oregon. Whether Wild Turkey Farm sold following its 2021 listing and at what price is not confirmed publicly. She has no social media presence, gives no interviews, attends no public events, and has maintained complete privacy since her divorce in 1986. As of 2026, she is approximately 61–66 years old.