Sandberg finds love again, with help from late husband’s brother
After Sheryl Sandberg’s husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly in 2015, she says she thought she and their two children would never feel joy again.
But four years later, the Facebook chief operating officer looked happy — and in love — while attending a Garth Brooks concert Sunday night with her new boyfriend, Tom Bernthal, People reported.
Sandberg, 49, and Bernthal, 45, debuted as a couple by posing for photos with Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, after the concert.
Bernthal is the cofounder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Kelton Global and a Emmy Awardwinning former NBC News producer. He is best friends with Rob Goldberg, the brother of Sandberg’s late husband. In fact, People reports, Rob Goldberg set up Sandberg with Bernthal.
“Tom is Rob’s best friend, and it is really special that Dave’s brother was the one to connect them,” the source told People. “He’s this really nice, down to earth guy. They’re both devoted parents. It’s a nice thing that it has worked out so well.”
The source added that Sandberg and Bernthal have had to deal with the fact that she’s based in Silicon Valley and he is based in Los Angeles. “They have been making it work, and traveling a lot, traveling together,” the source said.
If the “Lean In” author has moved on from the loss of her husband, that would be in keeping with the message she tried to convey in a Facebook message, posted 30 days after Goldberg died while the couple were on a family vacation in Mexico. Goldberg, the 47-year-old SurveyMonkey CEO, suffered a heart attack after collapsing on a treadmill.
“I think when tragedy occurs, it presents a choice,” Sandberg wrote. “You can give in to the void, the emptiness that fills your heart, your lungs, constricts your ability to think or even breathe. Or you can try to find meaning. … When I can, I want to choose life and meaning.”
Sandberg co-wrote the 2017 book, “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy.”
“In the early days, I did not believe it would get better,” Sandberg said in a 2017 interview. “People told me and I did not believe it. But if I can do for other people what they did for me, then it gives a bit of meaning to the tragedy.”