They can’t buy a home in California because the Ellisons own half of ‘em. I’m only partly joking but I think Ellison owns a couple dozen in Malibu alone. His two children are entertainment moguls of their own and also own multiple properties. And of course Ellison owns nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanaii. He bought it from the Dole company for a cool $500 million after they moved their pineapple supply to the Phillipines and didn’t need the land anymore.
Quinn described Ellison as “the most charismatic man she had ever met,” but it seemed that charisma was not enough to pull them through the difficult financial challenges they faced in their marriage. By 1974, Quinn was tired of Ellison’s extravagant spending and his dreams of becoming a millionaire, so she filed for divorce. He would go on to found his own software development company four years later.Adda never once mentioned her years with Ellison and I learned of it quite by accident (or maybe office gossip). She was a great person. But what a life mistake!