Meta Slams Memoir Claiming Sheryl Sandberg Slept in Assistant’s Lap, Said She ‘Loves’ Her

• In Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams claims Sheryl Sandberg had an intimate connection with her 26-year-old assistant during her time at Facebook
• For Wynn-Williams, working at Facebook came at great personal cost, especially when she was pregnant, she writes.
• “This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a company spokesperson said in a statement

A former Facebook executive is making waves with a new memoir about the company’s current and former leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg — including surprising anecdotes that are being dismissed by Meta as “false and defamatory.”

In Careless People, published this week, Sarah Wynn-Williams claims Sandberg, the company’s former chief operating officer, who built her brand in part on female empowerment with her book Lean In, had an intimate connection with her 26-year-old assistant that involved sleeping on each other during a business trip and wearing expensive lingerie that Sandberg allegedly asked her to purchase.

They had “taken turns sleeping in each other’s laps, occasionally stroking each other’s hair,” writes Wynn-Williams, who worked for Facebook (now known as Meta) for seven years as the director of global public policy, “while I tried to make myself as small and invisible as possible, feeling uncomfortable with what I was seeing.”

Wynn-Williams also claims in her book that Sandberg asked her assistant to buy lingerie for them both, which allegedly totaled $13,000.

The younger employee allegedly told Wynn-Williams that, according to the book, she was “very conscious of the benefits of being Sheryl’s ‘little doll,’ as she calls it and having Sheryl tell her she loves her.”

Wynn-Williams continues: “She’s the one who explained to me the benefits of ‘being on the pedestal.’ ”

A spokesman for Sandberg declined to comment on the book.

But another source who worked at Facebook at the same time as Wynn-Williams and Sandberg, and who was present for some of the anecdotes recounted in Careless People, tells PEOPLE that Wynn-Williams’ depiction of events is so distorted as to be “laughable.”

The company also immediately pushed back on Wynn-Williams’ account, which was published by Flatiron Books on Tuesday, March 11. 

“This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a company spokesperson tells PEOPLE in a statement.

“Eight years ago, Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behavior, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment,” the spokesperson went on to say. “Since then, she has been paid by anti-Facebook activists and this is simply a continuation of that work. Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books.”

For Wynn-Williams, writing the book was a way — in her view — to expose how Facebook leaders, like Sandberg and CEO/founder Zuckerberg, and company-wide issues led to her disillusionment of the highly influential social media platform.

For example, in Careless People, Wynn-Williams recounts what she describes as the shocking lengths Zuckerberg took to get Facebook into the Chinese market, and the widespread effects of hate speech on the platform.

The Meta spokesperson says they are pursuing “immediate legal action due to the false and defamatory nature of the allegations” in Wynn-Williams’ book. The spokesperson did not provide more details.

For Wynn-Williams, working at Facebook came at great personal cost, especially when she was pregnant, she writes.

She remembers drafting talking points for Sandberg while she was in the hospital about to give birth, and traveling internationally while pregnant.

“Looking back, I still can’t quite believe it. I’m ashamed,” she writes. “And I can’t blame this entirely on Facebook. I’ve been this kind of driven person my whole life. I don’t like to let people down. But it’s also true that at Facebook, I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”

It was during one of the trips abroad that, Wynn-Williams writes, she witnessed Sandberg sleeping next to her assistant — and was later asked by the COO herself to join Sandberg in bed, Wynn-Williams claims.

According to Careless People, Sandberg asked Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” twice on a private jet where there was only one bed during a long flight back to the U.S. Wynn-Williams refused. 

However, the source who worked with them both at Meta and was present during international travel as well says that Wynn-Williams is misconstruing what may have happened.

This source says that while they can’t remember the specifics — given how long ago it was — it was much more likely that Sandberg was merely trying to get Wynn-Williams to take some rest in the limited sleeping quarters available on the plane.

But for Wynn-Williams, these interactions stood in stark contrast to the values of Sandberg’s 2013 bestseller. Lean In outlines the ways women can gain power in the workplace and at home – and speak out against sexual harassment and uncomfortable workplace dynamics. 

During her maternity leave, Wynn-Williams also struggled to navigate new motherhood and the expectations of her job, especially during her interactions with Joel Kaplan, according to her book.

Kaplan, the vice president of U.S. policy, who once dated Sandberg, was Wynn-Williams’ then-manager.

In her memoir, Wynn-Williams writes how Kaplan made her uneasy following the birth of her second child: He insisted they video conference during her maternity leave, according to the book. And when she had complications after delivery, requiring her to have surgery, he pressed her, “But where are you bleeding from?” 

An investigation by Facebook cleared Kaplan of any inappropriate behavior, according to The New York Times.

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“Most days, working on policy at Facebook was way less like enacting a chapter from Machiavelli,” Wynn-Williams writes in Careless People, “and way more like watching a bunch of fourteen-­year-olds who’ve been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money, as they jet around the world to figure out what power has bought and brought them.”

Careless People is on sale now.