Oracle’s Ellison marries romance novelist

Larry Ellison, the flamboyant billionaire co-founder and CEO of Oracle, has wedded romance novelist Melanie Craft. It is his fourth marriage.

Ellison, 59, and Craft, 35, were married late last year and had been engaged for several years, Oracle spokeswoman Jennifer Glass confirmed on Tuesday. She declined further comment.

The CBS MarketWatch Web site broke the news of the wedding Tuesday morning. It came a day after Ellison relegated the duties of chairman at Oracle to Jeff Henley, the company’s long-time chief financial officer, who will give up that job when a new CFO has been named.

Craft grew up in Pittsburgh, according to her Web site. Her first book, “A Hard-Hearted Man,” began as a school project, landed in a drawer and was forgotten, but was published in 1998. Her second novel, “Trust Me,” was released in November, according to her Web site.

A third book, “Man Trouble,” is due out in May and tells the story of a romance author who tries to pull off the seduction of the century by posing as the ideal wife for a billionaire playboy who is struggling with business trouble because of his bad-boy image, according to a description of the book on Craft’s Web site.

A part in “Man Trouble” in which the writer moves in with the billionaire and goes through a makeover and media training is based on her own life, Craft wrote on her Web site.

Ellison is the world’s sixth-richest man, with a net worth of $16.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Ellison is known for his passion for sailing, fast cars and airplanes as well as his constant readiness to bad-mouth Oracle’s competition.