Google rocked by £15bn co founder's 'office romance' as split from wife is revealed

Google's multi-billionaire co-founder has split from his wife and allegedly started an office romance with a junior executive at the internet search giant.

A spokesman for Sergey Brin, 40, confirmed that he is living apart from his wife of six years Anne Wojcicki in a digital domestic drama that is the talk of California’s Silicon Valley.

His new partner is said to be Amanda Rosenberg, 26, who is the marketing manager for Brin’s latest obsession, the computerised spectacles known as Google Glass. The pair have spent much time promoting the product and were photographed together at New York Fashion week earlier this year.

Ms Rosenberg, who is said to be the author of Google Glass’s activation phrase “OK, Glass” moved to Silicon Valley from London early last year having worked for Google all her career since 2008.

In a blog written about “the romance of a transfer” to California she said: “I’d been living a beautifully choreographed life in London for pretty much my entire life; family, friends, job, life. Done. Then one day I realised that yes everyday was choreographed but the beauty had faded.” Ms Rosenberg, who describes herself as Asian, also said in her blog that one of her first thoughts in her new job was: “Hello new boss, hello new team... LIKE ME IMMEDIATELY.”

The split was first revealed yesterday by the AllThingsD technology site. Although a divorce is unlikely to affect the company directly — the married couple are said to have signed a pre-nuptial agreement — the break up has many of the elements of a soap opera. Ms Rosenberg, who lived in Wimbledon, was previously dating Hugo Barra, a senior Google executive who has announced he is quitting to join smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, known as the “Apple of China”.

In another twist, Ms Wojcicki, mother of Mr Brin’s two young children, is the chief executive of a biotech firm called 23andMe that Google has invested around £6 million in, while her sister, Susan, is one of the company’s top executives and was one of its first employees.

The relationship between Google and the Wojcicki sisters dates back to the company’s earliest days. In 1998, the nascent internet firm famously set up shop in Susan Wojcicki’s garage shortly after raising its first funding.

She is now vice president of Ads and Commerce and her husband, Dennis Troper, also works for the company.

A spokesman for Mr Brin, said to be worth almost £15 billion, said the couple were not legally separated and “they remain good friends and partners”.

Since co-founder Larry Page took over as chief executive officer of Google in 2011, Russian-born Mr Brin — dubbed The Enlightenment Man — has been spending most of his time at the company’s research lab, Google X, which has been developing ambitious “moon shot” projects like Google Glass.

Mr Brin and his wife have gained a reputation as a philanthropic power couple, donating tens of millions of pounds to a variety of charitable organisations.

Last year alone, they gave away nearly £144 million, earning them the distinction of being the fifth biggest donors to US charities, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.