Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg need you to know they’re nonetheless mates and undoubtedly not mad at one another

On Thursday, The New York Occasions printed a lengthy story concerning the rise in energy of Stephen Miller, a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump recognized for his hardline views on immigration. Usually, a narrative like that wouldn’t get a lot consideration within the tech press. However the piece opened with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that instantly raised eyebrows.

The story detailed a latest assembly Miller had with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago final 12 months. Based on The Occasions, Zuckerberg — who would quickly surrender Meta’s prior fact checking efforts and ditch corporate diversity packages — “blamed his former chief working officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Fb that inspired staff’ self-expression within the office.”

That line set off a contemporary spherical of hypothesis (and a few outrage) in tech circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and rose to fame after authoring her girls within the office manifesto Lean In, was recognized for her as soon as shut partnership with Zuckerberg on the high of Fb. That Zuckerberg would blame his former high lieutenant for fostering “inclusivity” at his firm, raised eyebrows even amongst longtime observers of the corporate.

“She all the time knew who Mark Zuckerberg and coated for him,” New York Occasions reporter Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a e book about Fb’s dominance, noticed on Bluesky. “ The query is whether or not she’s going to proceed to take action when he so blatantly throws her underneath the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech pundit Kara Swisher likewise noted that “of us I talked to tonight from the Mark/Sheryl Fb period are shocked however not shocked by his blaming her.”

I additionally weighed in on my Threads account, sharing a hyperlink to a Enterprise Insider story from February that quoted an interview by which Zuckerberg stated that Sandberg had raised him “like a mother or father.” I joked that the remark hadn’t aged properly.

However on Friday, Zuckerberg determined to let me (and I suppose everybody else) know that he and Sandberg are nonetheless cool, in spite of everything. “Sheryl did wonderful work at Meta and can endlessly be a legend within the business,” he wrote in a reply to my submit. “She constructed one of many biggest companies of all time and taught me a lot of what I do know.”

A couple of minutes later, Sandberg jumped in to helpfully let me know there are not any onerous emotions on her facet, both. “Thanks, @zuck. I’ll all the time be thankful for the various years we spent constructing an excellent enterprise collectively – and on your friendship that obtained me by way of a few of the hardest occasions of my life and continues to at the present time.”

Zuckerberg responded with a single heart emoji.

I requested Zuckerberg if he felt Sandberg was too centered on DEI initiatives at Meta, or whether or not she took away from the “masculine power” he not too long ago told Joe Rogan companies ought to embody. Notably, he has not denied The Occasions’ reporting about his feedback concerning Sandberg, although he claimed they’re being misconstrued.

“I answered a query about the place the phrase ‘deliver your entire self to work’ got here from, and now there’s a complete bogus narrative saying I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of stuff that I by no means did and by no means will,” he said. (Bringing your “entire self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg in Lean In. Related language usually appeared on Meta’s careers site when the corporate highlighted range amongst its staff. “Being your genuine self is the inspiration of who we’re as an organization,” Meta wrote on a since-deleted web page of its company web site the place it shared its inside range studies.)

So, I suppose that settles it. Nothing to see right here, of us. Mark and Sheryl are undoubtedly nonetheless mates. They could not work on the identical firm anymore, however they’re nonetheless in a position to come collectively to go off a possible PR crisis. What could possibly be extra inspiring than that?

Replace, January 17, 2025, 4PM PT: This submit was up to date to replicate a further remark from Zuckerberg.