Ex-Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg invited her 26-year-old female assistant to try on lingerie at her home and spend the night, according to a former employee’s memoir published Tuesday.
In CARELESS PEOPLE: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Facebook’s former director of global public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams alleges that Sandberg’s reign as the social media platform’s chief operating officer was marked by “unspoken rules.” She demanded “obedience” and “closeness” from her immediate employees, and “those closest to Sheryl are rewarded,” writes Wynn-Williams.
At her request, an assistant allegedly spent $10,000 on lingerie for Sandberg as well as $3,000 on underwear for herself.
In an email thanking Sandberg, Wynn-Williams alleges that the assistant wrote, “This bra is INCREDIBLY beautiful and fits perfectly. So grateful. This is my breasts equivalent of flying privately for the first time.”
To which Sandberg allegedly responded, “Happy to treat your breasts as they should be treated.”
Upping the praise, the assistant added, “A total Pretty Woman moment (the good one not the one where they kick her out. I feel like the fanciest twenty-six-year-old in the world.”
In a follow up email, Sandberg allegedly added that the assistant should “come to her house to try on the underwear and have dinner.” Wynn-Williams alleges that Sandberg later invited the assistant to “stay over.”
According to allegations outlined in Wynn-Williams’ book, the exchange was not out of the ordinary for Sandberg—whose widely-read 2013 memoir, Lean In, became a career call to action for women to lean into climbing the corporate ladder. Yet Sandberg frequently demanded that her employees lean in and then some, according to Wynn-Williams.
The 26-year-old assistant described herself as Sandberg’s “little doll” among other favorite employees that the Facebook exec had put “on a pedestal” as long as they leaned into Sandberg’s needs.
However, Wynn-Williams writes that her relationship with Sandberg began to sour as she leaned away. When a pregnant Wynn-Williams refused to “come to bed” with Sandberg on a private jet, Wynn-Williams writes that Sandberg reacted coldly to her refusal.
“You should have got into bed,” Sandberg allegedly told Wynn-Williams after the flight.
Responding to the allegations to the New York Post, a Meta spokesperson said: “This is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Sheryl Sandberg for comment.
Wynn-Williams adds that the pressure to rise to Sandberg’s requests affected those inside and outside the company. During a trip to Tokyo to meet the Japanese prime minister, Sandberg allegedly left two makeup artists in tears and pushed to have the dignitary be photographed with her book.
Later, Sandberg seemed to lie about being booked on an Asiana Airlines jet that crashed at San Francisco airport. Writing in a Facebook post that she, her family and colleagues had planned to take the plane, reported NBC News at the time.
“Sheryl always flies United. That’s who she has status with. We never considered Asiana. I don’t know why she posted it. I don’t know why she tagged all of us,” Debbie Frost allegedly told Wynn-Williams. She added, “Now I’ve got to deal with the incoming media queries about it, though apparently she’s just emailing reporters herself.”
For Wynn-Williams, she writes that a breaking point in her career came when she began drafting talking points for Sandberg’s meeting with Brazil’s president at Davos while preparing to deliver her baby—despite protests from her husband and doctor.
“I’m in the delivery room, my feet in stirrups, in labor,” Wynn-Williams wrote. “I put down my phone and reach for my laptop. I start drafting.”
When she gets the talking points finished, Wynn-Williams writes that she felt “ashamed.”
“I know how this looks, and I can’t defend it,” she writes. “I don’t like to let people down. But it’s also true that at Facebook, I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
Sandberg left Facebook in 2022, stepping down from Meta’s board in 2024. Wynn-Williams was fired by the company in 2017, which she implies in the book was due to her reporting sexual harassment. According to CNN, the company blamed the move over “unfounded” statements made by Wynn-Williams.
