Inside look at the family life of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan
Only on "CBS This Morning," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, philanthropist Priscilla Chan, invited us into their home. They have never allowed a TV camera crew inside before. "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King was able to see first-hand who this couple and their children are outside their Facebook lives.
"Priscilla, how do you handle all of the incoming that goes to Facebook? That goes to Mark specifically?" King asked.
"I think it's hard," Chan said. "Like, the way your gut feels when your best friend walks ho– comes home, and it's, like, 'Hard day. Not sure what needs to come next.' Or, you know, waking up at night and being like, 'He's still not in bed.' And so I see that, I also see that… we're still so fortunate. Like, the touchstone of our family and our kids and just knowing that we are – we're okay."
Raising children
It's that family that motivated them to build the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a now 4-year-old company funding advancements in medical science and other fields. The couple launched it just days after the birth of their first daughter, Max, who is now joined by her little sister, August.
"How do you raise children when you can really give them anything materially, to be grounded?" King asked.
"First of all, we don't give them everything. So I think that that's an important piece. But they also just have responsibilities," Zuckerberg said.
"So you're saying you teach them that they have chores?" King asked.
"They have chores," Zuckerberg said.
"We also take them to work. Mark and I take both of them to work, to the office, to see sort of, like, what we do, how we contribute," Chan said.
"Work comes home" — but not on date nights
"So how do you not bring work home, guys? You work together, you live together?" King asked.
"Well, I disagree with the premise of that question," Zuckerberg said with a laugh.
"I mean, work comes home," Chan said, adding, "We care deeply about our work. And so we don't leave it at the door. But we are super careful about thinking about, 'Is this the moment to talk about it?'"
"I guess it was when you kept on bringing up work at – on date night," Zuckerberg said to Chan. The two said they have a weekly date night.
"And no work talk on date night?" King asked.
"No work talk," Chan said.
Chan said date night was Zuckerberg's idea.
"Mark, are you the sentimental one in this relationship?" King asked.
"I think that would be a surprising conclusion to come to, but that may be where this interview is going," Zuckerberg said, laughing.
"Major red flag"
Another surprise: the couple's first date, way back at Harvard after meeting in line for the bathroom at a frat party, almost didn't lead to a second date.
"There was a major red flag," Chan said. "I'm like a type A student. At the end of the date, he said, 'I have a take-home midterm I need to do. But I'd rather hang out with you.'"
"Which I thought would be – it's, like, a compliment, right?" Zuckerberg said. "I mean, that's like, all right, I'm having fun, this is going well!" He said he was "pretty confident" he could "do the test fine."
"I was, like, 'This guy's going nowhere. He's blowing off his homework!'" Chan said.
When Facebook launched, Chan said she didn't think her life would change.
"No one in their wildest dreams would imagine that this is what would happen after that. It was just an-- it was his next project," Chan said.
"People say… the success of Facebook certainly has a lot to do with Priscilla's influence on you. Would you agree with that?" King asked Zuckerberg.
"I think that's — that's gotta be true," he responded.
"You run things by her? You seek out her advice?" King asked.
"Yeah, but I think — but we also just talk about our philosophy on life," Zuckerberg said. "And then that ends up, you know, having a lot of effects on, you know, how I think about building my team at Facebook and the values with which we run the organization."
In their marriage vows, there is a line where Chan said Zuckerberg makes her a better version of herself.
"He just believes in me so much of — even when I don't believe in myself... highlighting where I have strength where I may not see my own strength," Chan said.
For Zuckerberg, he said Chan has "this way of communicating kind of the soul of something that ... I think it's inspiring and something that we would all do better to, you know, be able to — to do more of that."
Learning Mandarin
Every year, Zuckerberg picks a project — like learning Chinese.
"What did that mean to you when he did that, Priscilla?" King asked Chan.
"Maybe a little frustrated that my Mandarin was better than yours for a little bit," Zuckerberg said as Chan laughed.
"Your Mandarin was better than mine, briefly. But, I mean, the thing— the real takeaway I had from that year is that Mark is better at talking than listening in many languages," Chan said.
"Aww," Zuckerberg said. "I got to a point in Mandarin where I could say a lot of things that I wanted. But my listening was not good. So… I remember having this conversation. I was, like, 'Why do you think my listening is— in Mandarin is not as good?' And you're, like, 'It's not Mandarin.'"
"Priscilla, what is it that would surprise people about Mark Zuckerberg?" King asked.
"I think you're getting it out of him today, Gayle. He's kind of a softie!" Chan said.
