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 revealed a lengthy story concerning the rise in energy of Stephen Miller, a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump identified 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. In keeping with The Occasions, Zuckerberg — who would quickly resign Meta’s prior fact checking efforts and ditch corporate diversity applications — “blamed his former chief working officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Fb that inspired workers’ 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 ladies within the office manifesto Lean In, was identified 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 at all times knew who Mark Zuckerberg and lined for him,” New York Occasions reporter Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a guide about Fb’s dominance, noticed on Bluesky. “ The query is whether or not she is going to proceed to take action when he so blatantly throws her below the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech pundit Kara Swisher likewise noted that “people 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 through which Zuckerberg stated that Sandberg had raised him “like a dad or mum.” I joked that the remark hadn’t aged nicely.

However on Friday, Zuckerberg determined to let me (and I assume everybody else) know that he and Sandberg are nonetheless cool, in any case. “Sheryl did superb work at Meta and can without end be a legend within the trade,” he wrote in a reply to my publish. “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 aren’t any arduous emotions on her facet, both. “Thanks, @zuck. I’ll at all times be thankful for the various years we spent constructing an awesome enterprise collectively – and to your friendship that acquired me by way of a number of the hardest instances of my life and continues to today.”

Zuckerberg responded with a single heart emoji.

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

“I answered a query about the place the phrase ‘convey your complete 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 “complete self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg in Lean In. Related language typically appeared on Meta’s careers site when the corporate highlighted range amongst its workers. “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 inner range studies.)

So, I assume that settles it. Nothing to see right here, people. Mark and Sheryl are undoubtedly nonetheless mates. They could not work on the similar firm anymore, however they’re nonetheless capable of come collectively to move off a possible PR crisis. What may very well be extra inspiring than that?

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