Billionaires Beautiful Wifes

MELANIE CRAFT

Married to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle

A Pittsburgh native, Melanie Craft studied archaeology at Oberlin College and the American University in Cairo. She graduated in 1992, after taking a year off to work in East Africa.

She has worked as a sales clerk, bartender, safari driver, pastry chef, cocktail waitress, house-cleaner, technical writer, and briefly as a Swahili teacher - although she doesn't speak Swahili and eventually became a romance novelist.

Billionaire software CEO Larry Ellison and Craft sealed an eight-year courtship by marrying during the winter holidays in 2003. The wedding was the first for Craft, 34, and the fourth for Ellison, 59, CEO of Oracle. The couple married at Ellison's 45-acre Japanese-style compound in Woodside beside a waterfall. Craft also serves on the board of the Ellison Medical Foundation, which funds Alzheimer's research.


MELINDA GATES

Married to Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

Years before Melinda French (43) met and married Bill Gates, she had a love affair - with an Apple computer. She was captivated to the computer when her father Ray French brought home an Apple III computer when she was 16. Melinda met Gates while working as a manager at Microsoft.

This was not exactly a marriage of equals. Melinda is better educated than Bill, having graduated from Duke University with a BA (a double major in computer science and economics) and an MBA. Harvard's most celebrated dropout, Bill was awarded an honorary degree only recently.

Melinda also outperforms him athletically. She has completed the Seattle marathon and climbed, with ropes and crampons, to the peak of 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.Mother of three, she now lives in Medina, Washington DC with Gates.


TINA MUNIM

Married to Anil Ambani, Chairman of ADAG

Tina (53) comes from a middle-class Gujarati speaking family who lived in Bhuleshwar. Prior to marrying Anil Ambani, Tina Munim was a famed Bollywood actress.

Discovered by Dev Anand after she represented India at the International Teen Princess contest in Aruba and won the Miss Photogenic awards, Tina aspired to become a Parisian-trained couturier and was poised to travel there for her studies in design when she was approached with a cinematic offer.

She made her name in the 1978 Indian blockbuster Des Pardes (translated into English as At Home and Abroad). She went on to star in 30 more films.

In 1991, she returned to India and married industrialist Anil Ambani. Today, mother of two sons, Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul, Tina is involved in a number of charity, arts, and talent endeavors and hasn't made any new film since the mid 1980s.


USHA MITTAL

Married to Laksmi Mittal, CEO of Arcelor Mittal

Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender, met Mittal who was just 21, when she was on a holiday to Calcutta (now Kolkata). She had just graduated from Banaras Hindu University in Economics. Ahead of the marriage well arranged by both the families, Usha and Lakshmi fell in on their first phone conversation after their formal engagement.

Married to world's fourth-richest man, Usha has clearly earned his trust. Last year she has been entrusted with temporary responsibility of managing the world's largest steel company if the managing board of directors is permanently absent or prevented from handling duties.

She apparently worked in the steel business for 15 years, at one time reportedly running a plant in Indonesia. She is also the namesake of the Usha Mittal Institute of Technology, an institution that promotes the women's education in India.


WENDI DENG

Married to Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of New Corp

Wendi Deng (40) was born in Xuzhou, China to a middle class family. She studied in the United States and received a master's degree in business administration at the Yale School of Management, before returning to Hong Kong to work at News Corporation's Star TV.

Deng met News Corp Chairman Murdoch while working as vice president of Star TV in Hong Kong. She became Murdoch's third wife on June 25, 1999. Age has been no barrier to fathering more children for Rupert Murdoch in his seventies as they have had two children together - Grace and Chloe. Wendi Deng continues to be active in the News Corp Company, working on the Myspace.com move into China.


LUCY SOUTHWORTH

Married to Larry Page, Co-founder of Google

Beauty and brains to boot, Lucy Southworth, earned biomedical informatics doctoral from at Stanford University and had previously studied at Oxford, where she gained a MSc. Creating envy to many single women world over, Lucy and Larry Page were reportedly together for more than a year before marriage.

Lucy’s wedding with Google co-founder Larry Page that happened in December 2007 was one of those failed secrets that everyone knew about. One of the two biggest weddings of the year, Larry Page and Lucy tied the knot on Richard Branson’s Necker Island.


SUSAN DELL

Married to Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Computers

Susan Lieberman, a fashion designer and boutique owner, married the founder of Dell Computers - Michael Dell in 1989. While husband Michael is busy looking after the day-to-day activities at Dell, Susan is busy running, swimming and cycling.

The elite-level athlete competed in the 2003 Ironman endurance competition. Susan is also chairman of Phi, a fashion label that has had runway shows in New York and has been featured in Vogue. She chairs the Dell philanthropic foundation.

The Dells currently reside in Austin, Texas with their three daughters: Kira, Alexa, Juliette and a son, Zachary.


DIANE VON FURSTBURG

Married to Barry Diller, Chairman, USA Network

Born in Brussels and immigrated to US, this Belgian designer, working in New York, is a graduate in Economics from University of Geneva.

Diane (61) began her career with no fashion training. She did, however, have knowledge of international high society and culture. Her philosophy was simple - to create elegant ease for all women.

Her iconic wrap dress took the fashion world by storm in the 1970s with Diane telling ladies to "feel like a woman, wear a dress." Since then, the Belgian-born designer's empire has expanded into 56 countries and includes jewellery, luggage and cosmetics.

After divorcing Prince Egon Von Furstenburg in 1983, Diane married Barry Diller Chairman of USA Network. This celebrated fashion designer is now mother to their children - Alexandre, Tatiana.



ANNE DIAS GRIFFIN

Married to Kenneth Griffin, Hedge fund chief, Citadel

Harvard graduated Anne Dias-Griffin was born in France in 1971. She founded Aragon Global Management, a hedge fund focusing on equities across the globe. Her $160 million hedge fund benefits from her experience at Goldman Sachs, Viking Global and Soros Fund Management.

Anne Dias Griffin married Citadel hedge fund chief Kenneth Griffin. Dias Griffin is also a patron of arts and is a trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and New York's Whitney Museum.


KATE CAPSHAW

Married to Stephen Spielberg, Hollywood director

Kate Capshaw (54), born in Texas, had always harboured a hankering to become an actress. Capshaw put these plans in mothballs to earn a master's degree in special education at the University of Missouri. She was into teaching for two years before heading to New York to embark on an acting career.

Capshaw played small roles in commercials and soap operas, then in 1982 made her film bow in A Little Sex. Two years later, she was cast as the heroine in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Blonde beauty met director husband Steven Spielberg on the set of 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and in October 1991, Capshaw married film director Steven Spielberg at his East Hampton, Long Island, New York estate. Between them, they have seven children.