Marriage, Fame, and Entrepreneurship – Can You Have Them All?

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Updated: 27 Jan, 2023

Table of Contents

Ambition and partnership can coexist; couples grow closer when they celebrate each other's goals, listen deeply, and build shared dreams that honor both career and love.
Seeing and supporting each other matters; regular check-ins, empathy, and small acts of encouragement deepen emotional connection and create a safe space for vulnerability.
Resilience through challenges together strengthens the bond; facing challenges together with patience and humor helps couples feel seen and united, turning ambition into a shared life.

Succeeding as a female entrepreneur or balancing between marriage and entrepreneurship? Which one seems more challenging to you? What if you want to achieve both? What if you become famous in the meantime? It surely sounds difficult, almost impossible, but that is not a reason enough to give up on your dreams.

Take a look at these seven real life stories about women who have it all. They decided to take control over their lives and built empires for themselves. I hope this will inspire you to do the same.

1. Cher Wang

Cher Wang is the co-founder of HTC, one of the most famous mobile technology companies in the world. She was born in 1958 and received a degree in economics in 1981. Only a year later, she started working for the “First International Computer” company then co-founded VIA in 1987, which lead her to co-found HTC in 1997.

Alongside having a net worth of 1.6 billion dollars, Cher is happily married to Wenchi Chan, and they have two beautiful children.

2. Oprah Winfrey

Even though you might have never heard of some of the other names on this list, you surely know who Oprah is!

She is a multi-talented actress, talk show host, producer and most importantly philanthropist. Of course, we all know her for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which is one of the longest-running daytime talk shows ever. It has 25 seasons which means it has been on the television for 25 years.

Her total net worth is around $3 billion. Still, she never married. However, she had been with her partner Stedman Graham since 1986, so we could say she is definitely capable of maintaining healthy, happy, long-term relationship.

3. FolorunshoAlakija

You might not know who FolorunshoAlakija is, but she is the richest female entrepreneur in Nigeria. She has a net worth of around $2.5 billion.

Alakija’s first company was part of the tailoring niche called “Supreme Stitches,” which she founded after being an employee of “Sijuade Enterprises” in Nigeria, and the First National Bank of Chicago. Since then she is investing in oil and printing industries.

In 1976, she married a lawyer ModupeAlakija, and they have seven children which speaks a lot about their happiness.

4. Denise Coates

Denise Coates is the founder of Bet365, one of the largest online gambling companies. She purchased the Bet365.com in 2000 and managed to rebuild it within a year.

After getting a £15 million loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Bet365 came online. Today you can’t watch any sport in the UK without noticing their adverts.

Her current net worth is $3.5 billion. She is married to Richard Smith, the director of Stoke City FC. They recently adopted four young children. Well done to them!

5. Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx, a multi-million dollar underwear company. You could say she started from scratch as she did not have that much money to invest in developing her company in the initial stages.

Her ideas were rejected numerous times from potential investors and she had to put in a lot of hard work to get the company off the ground. However, today her net worth is $1.04 billion.

Since 2008, Blake is happily married to Jesse Itzler, and they have four children together.

6. Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is an American technology executive, current COO of Facebook, author, and activist. Her admirable career includes being a board member for The Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, V-Day and SurveyMonkey. Her net worth today is $1.65 billion.

Unlike other women from this list, Sheryl has two marriages behind her. She was married to Brian Kraff whom she divorced a year later. In 2004 she married Dave Goldberg. These two talked a lot about their experience of being in shared earning/shared parenting marriage. Unfortunately, Goldberg died unexpectedly in 2015.

Sheryl is the true example that even with ups and downs of your personal life, you can still stay on top of your entrepreneurship game.You can always bounce back.

7. Beyoncé

There is no better example to show you that female entrepreneur can become even stronger once she marries the love of her life. Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s combined net worth is over $1 billion, while her personal fortune is worth around $350 million.

Besides that, they have three gorgeous children and media is always buzzing about their magical marriage. However, Beyoncé is an award-winning musician, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist, but she also made various investments, endorsements and launched her own clothing line.

After reading all of this do you dare to assume that married women cannot be successful entrepreneurs? All that is left to say is congratulations ladies; we are proud of you. We will do our best to follow your path.

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Marriage.com Editorial Team Relationship & Marriage Advice

The Marriage.com Editorial Team is a group of experienced relationship writers, experts, and mental health professionals. We provide practical and research-backed advice on relationships. Our content is thoroughly reviewed by experts... Read more to ensure that we offer high-quality and reliable relationship advice. Read less