Tragic Details About Mark Zuckerberg's Wife Priscilla Chan

Priscilla Chan rose from humble beginnings to become half of one of the world's most powerful couples. But a lot happened in between. In many ways, Chan's success story was built on a series of generational tragedies. The Chans always focused on the bright side because they came from a life of hardship. Both sets of Chan's grandparents, who were of Chinese descent, worked together as business partners in Vietnam — making hers one big, interconnected family.

When the reality of the Vietnam War became unsustainable, her grandparents separated their many children in different boats before sending them to the United States in case they sank. "That's how my grandparents said goodbye to their kids on these little boats in the middle of the night, sending them off into the South China Sea, in hopes that they'll see each other again," she told the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Life across the globe wasn't easy. Chan struggled to fit in and experienced bullying. But her family's difficult journey built resilience.

Watching her parents' sacrifices inspired her to focus on school so their efforts wouldn't be in vain. Chan became a pediatrician and philanthropist, using her and Mark Zuckerberg's shared fortune to advance her vision. But her association with the Facebook founder hasn't just brought joy and success. Together, Chan and Zuckerberg faced painful obstacles in their parenthood journey, and her husband's sprawling influence has made her the target of online abuse. Chan's life story is a powerful one, but it wasn't always smooth. 

Some social media users take personal offense at Priscilla Chan's marriage to Mark Zuckerberg. In their minds, someone worth billions surely needs a trophy wife. Because Chan doesn't fit the bill, she has often been subjected to sexist online abuse. "Being a billionaire and marrying THAT is crazy ngl," one user wrote on X, previously known as Twitter, sharing a screenshot of a photo Zuckerberg posted of his family on Instagram in July 2023 (seen above).

That's hardly the first or only time Chan was deemed unworthy of Zuckerberg's affection based on her looks. A Reddit user even started a thread to try to explain the big life mystery behind their relationship. "Why rich people like mark zuckerberg marry ugly/avarage [sic] looking women?" the user pondered. Some responded with sexist remarks that were somehow meant to defend Chan. "Better to date a 7 that you get along with than a 10 that's a gold digging b***h that you have nothing in common with," one user argued.

Chan and Zuckerberg have taken the high road, though. Instead of hitting back at the vitriolic attacks, Zuckerberg has drawn public attention for his devotion to Chan. He went so far as to have a statue of his wife put in their backyard. It's like he's trying to make a point — and maybe he is. But for all the valid criticism that has been flung Zuckerberg's way, his love life certainly shouldn't be among it. 

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg are the proud parents of three little girls. But building their family was a bumpy journey. Before they welcomed their first child, Maxima, in December 2015, Chan and Zuckerberg suffered three miscarriages. "You feel so hopeful when you learn you're going to have a child," Zuckerberg said. "You start imagining who they'll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they're gone. It's a lonely experience," he revealed in a July 2015 Facebook post.

Zuckerberg wanted to share their parenthood journey in an effort to break some of the taboos associated with pregnancy loss. "Most people don't discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you — as if you're defective or did something to cause this. So you struggle on your own," he added. They also hoped it would help make others feel less alone in their own experiences with miscarriages.

"We realized how challenging and difficult that was and there are really dark moments where you think you're alone," Chan shared with Savannah Guthrie on "Today" in 2016 (via People). "We realized that we weren't and that there were other people traveling along the same road with you." Learning about other couples' experiences helped them navigate their own losses, so they wanted to bring comfort to others in a similar position. Chan and Zuckerberg went on to welcome August in 2017, and Aurelia in March 2023.

Priscilla Chan had two loving parents, but they were never around. Hers is a story most immigrant families know all too well, but it doesn't make it less difficult. Chan's parents arrived in the U.S. by boat to flee the Vietnam War in the 1970s. With no higher education, Yvonne and Dennis Chan's willingness to work hard was all they had to offer. To raise their three girls and ensure they'd have the future they couldn't, Yvonne and Dennis worked up to 18 hours a day between their jobs at Taste of Asia and other places.

In her parents' absence, Priscilla and her sisters were cared for by their grandmother. "She was mostly raised by her Chinese grandmother, who spoke no English. She was a very dignified woman who clearly was a huge influence in Priscilla's life. The grandmother was her emotional support," her former science teacher and tennis coach, Peter Swanson, told the Daily Mail in 2012. However, watching her family's sacrifice inspired her to excel in school.

Since her parents never went to college, they struggled to see just how much potential she had. It was thanks to her public school teachers that she learned to identify her intellectual prowess. "[They got] me excited about learning," she told Savannah Guthrie on the "Today" show. Her background led Chan to work with disadvantaged kids in hopes of showing them their potential. "Education is an incredibly personal issue for me," she said.

Because their journey was facilitated by the Catholic Church, Priscilla Chan's family ended up in an Irish community in Massachusetts. She spoke Cantonese at home and looked nothing like anyone else around her. "My identity, I felt, was so distinct. I felt very much like an outsider. My family didn't have the same rituals that everyone else seemed to have," she told the Mercury News in 2018 (via Santa Cruz Sentinel).

Her lack of identification within her community wasn't just an issue for her. Others saw it as a problem as well and bullied her for it. "Middle school is awful," she said in the Stanford Graduate School of Business interview. As she had a hard time connecting with her peers, Chan often hid away to avoid being noticed. "I was eating lunch in the bathroom, in a public school bathroom, because I didn't wanna go out to the playground," she recalled.

She had enough one day, though. That reality wasn't sustainable. "I was just like, 'This can't be the rest of my life, right?'" she said. As she began to understand her academic talents, she realized she could lean on them. Others started to notice her — and not as the outsider anymore. She joined a robotics class and was voted "class genius" by her fellow students. "As a sixth grader, I was like, 'I'm gonna buckle down. I don't know what's out there. I'm gonna work really hard and I'm gonna get there,'" she recalled. 

In her quest to inspire disadvantaged children to find a way out through their studies, Priscilla Chan became involved in a tutoring program during her time at Harvard University. The program focused on a neighborhood overtaken by gang violence. It was then that she learned how big a challenge educators face every day. One of her biggest life lessons happened when a student arrived with blood on his face after being jumped on his way to class.

"I realized that my homework help was going to completely be futile if these kids couldn't be healthy, safe and happy in the place that they lived," she said in the Mercury News interview. "That really drives a lot of what I decided to do in my life and career." In another instance, she went searching for a pupil she hadn't seen in days. She found her at a neighborhood park with her front teeth missing. She completed her biology degree in 2007 and left Harvard and the after-school mentees behind.

Chan moved to California, where she taught science at a prep school for a year. She couldn't stop thinking about her former mentees. "Those kids were completely different than the kids that I taught in the after-school program," she said. These experiences pushed Chan to use her platform to invest in education. After Maxima was born, she and Mark Zuckerberg pledged to pour 99% of their Facebook shares into education and healthcare through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.