Nancy Wheeler Jenkins: Larry Ellison's Second Wife

Nancy Wheeler Jenkins holds one of the strangest entries in modern business history. Her one-year marriage to Larry Ellison ended, and the shares she returned cost her a future dynasty.

She married the Oracle co-founder in 1977, during the same season his software company was born. The divorce came a year later, and her returned stake settled for a figure that reads like a typo today. Her story makes her a permanent name in Silicon Valley timelines.

Who Nancy Wheeler Jenkins Is

The public file on Nancy Wheeler Jenkins stays narrow. She is known through her marriage record, listed as one of Larry Ellison's six wives, per his biography record.

The names around her matter in searches. Larry Ellison's first wife was Adda Quinn, whom he married in 1967 and divorced in 1974, per the same record. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins arrived next in the sequence, which makes her the second wife.

The Quinn file runs separately on this site. A full biography of Adda Quinn covers the first-marriage years. That page pairs cleanly with this one for readers mapping the Ellison family set.

The search mix-up happens for a reason. Many readers search the wives set for the first-wife phrase, and the results often blur the order. Queries on her own name draw the same traffic. The search results mix the two women together. The confusion is understandable, because her share-sale story tends to appear in every Ellison wealth profile, per the press coverage.

Her fame flows from the transaction, not from a career record. No public business file, board seat, or verified profile of Nancy Wheeler Jenkins exists outside the marriage coverage, per the available record.

Meeting and Marrying Larry Ellison

The meeting came late in 1976. Larry Ellison met Nancy Wheeler Jenkins in that season, per the biography record, and the wedding followed shortly after.

He entered that period from a technical career. Ellison had worked at Ampex Corporation during the 1970s, after a brief stint at Amdahl, per the same record. His first Ampex project included the government database work. That project carried the code name "Oracle."

The timing sat at a turning point in his career. In 1977, Ellison joined the founders of Software Development Laboratories, the company that became Oracle, per the same record. The group invested a total of 2,000 dollars, and Ellison's own share ran 1,200 dollars.

A Codd paper supplied the technical spark. Edgar F. Codd's paper on relational database systems pointed the founders toward the model, per the record.

The 1977 marriage therefore shared a clock with Oracle. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins entered a partnership whose start-up capital measured 2,000 dollars, per the founding record. Her name now sits inside a company story whose later chapters run into the billions.

The 500 Dollar Share Sale

The divorce completed in 1978. As part of the split, Nancy Wheeler Jenkins sold her shares back to Larry Ellison for 500 dollars, per the biography record. The company at the time still ran as SDL.

The number is the story. Five hundred dollars bought out her stake in a firm that later reached hundreds of billions in value, per the market record. The sale became the standard example of a bet settled one year too early.

The lesson gets quoted in startup circles. Oracle's founding investment of 2,000 dollars in 1977 carried the whole project, per the company record. The firm then grew into one of the central companies of the software age. The buyout figure of 500 dollars sits beside that growth as the cautionary number.

Her exit gave Ellison full ownership. He kept the shares, and the company later carried his climb toward the top of the wealth tables, per the market record.

Where She Sits in the Wives List

The full list counts six marriages. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins occupies the second slot, separated from the third wife only by a short single stretch, per the biography record.

The third marriage came with children. Larry Ellison married Barbara Boothe, a former receptionist at Oracle, and they divorced in 1986, per the same record. Their children are David Ellison, now chief of Skydance Corporation, and Megan Ellison, founder of Annapurna Pictures.

Later marriages filled the list. They ran from Barbara Boothe to Melanie Craft, the romance novelist, and onward to Nikita Kahn, per the record. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins thus stands between the longest early marriage and the family that produced the Ellison film generation.

His family ledger grew larger in later unions. The biography records seven children in total, per the same record, and David and Megan appear among them. The 1977 marriage lists no children of its own, which keeps the Jenkins branch a names-only file beyond the share story.

Ellison Context With the Later Fortune

The wealth around the divorce story grew beyond recognition. Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle and ran it as chief executive from 1977 to 2014, per the biography record. He now serves as its chief technology officer and executive chairman.

The market numbers now stagger. Forbes carried him at roughly 201 to 203 billion dollars in early 2026, per the publication's record. That figure marked him as the world's sixth-richest person. In September 2025, an Oracle stock surge lifted his standing briefly, per the same coverage. For those days, the estimates placed him as the world's wealthiest at 393 billion dollars.

More than one famous buyout passes through his file. His later purchases included 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, per the same record. The reported price for that 2012 deal ran between 500 and 600 million dollars. The scale contrast with a 500 dollar share buyback is the reason her file gets told.

What Else Do People Ask About ?

Who is Nancy Wheeler Jenkins?

She is the second wife of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, per his biography record. She is known for selling her company shares back during their 1978 divorce.

How did Larry Ellison meet Nancy Wheeler Jenkins?

He met her in late 1976, per the biography record, and the two married shortly after the meeting.

Why is Nancy Wheeler Jenkins famous?

Her 1978 exit paid her 500 dollars for her Oracle shares, per the record. The company's later growth made the figure the classic startup cautionary tale.

Did Nancy Wheeler Jenkins remarry?

No verified remarriage or later profile appears in the available record. Her documented trail ends with the 1978 share sale.

Who was Larry Ellison's first wife?

Adda Quinn, married in 1967 and divorced in 1974, per the same record. Nancy Wheeler Jenkins followed as the second wife.

How many times has Larry Ellison been married?

Six times, per the biography record, with marriages from Adda Quinn through Nikita Kahn.

Is Nancy Wheeler Jenkins a billionaire?

No verified record shows any such fortune. Her documented stake sale ran 500 dollars, per the biography record.

Conclusion

The Nancy Wheeler Jenkins file is short, but the numbers inside it carry decades of weight. She met Larry Ellison in late 1976, per the record. The marriage landed in his company's birth year, and the exit came in 1978. A 500 dollar share sale stays signed into the file.

Everything around her name kept expanding afterward. Oracle grew into a software giant, Ellison's stakes touched the world's highest wealth tables, and the wives list extended to six. Her part of the story stays fixed at one year and one small figure, which is exactly why it still gets searched.