I can definitely see her as that specific type of insecure person who chooses someone like that because they feel they deserve the punishment. It reminds me a little of Nastasya Filippovna, from the Idiot:
> No, no; we'd better say good-bye and part friends. I am a bit of a dreamer myself, and I used to dream of you once. Very often during those five years down at his estate I used to dream and think, and I always imagined just such a good, honest, foolish fellow as you, one who should come and say to me: 'You are an innocent woman, Nastasia Philipovna, and I adore you.' I dreamt of you often. I used to think so much down there that I nearly went mad; and then this fellow here would come down. He would stay a couple of months out of the twelve, and disgrace and insult and deprave me, and then go; so that I longed to drown myself in the pond a thousand times over; but I did not dare do it.
The biggest challenge I have with this (because intimate partner abuse/violence is a real thing and shouldn't be lessened) is that even accounting for their secrecy, the relationship didn't develop until well after Theranos was on a path, and Holmes is claiming sexual harassment from Day 1 (or earlier, when it was "just an idea").
Who thinks repeatedly sexually harassing _your boss_, who can terminate your employment, is a move that's going to earn you career success??
There's also a lot of other evidence to say that she was quite comfortable with how things went in their relationship and at work.
Similarly, through all the buildup to where we're at now, not once was this floated, until trial. Holmes was a believer, still touting that we have her and Theranos all wrong, are all luddite naysayers. Day 1 of the trial? "Actually, Sunny made me do it all".
Let's not get into the sociopathic narcissism (and other apt phrases) that comes with "I just got the trial calendar for my federal court case that could see me get 20 years in jail. Oh look, in the midst of all that, I got pregnant with a due date that is just before the trial is set to wrap up". Yes, people fall in love, accidents happen, but my thoughts in this scenario have "have a kid" pretty damn far down the list of my priorities (that being said, the aforementioned narcissism and denial could genuinely have her believing "there's no way in hell anyone finds me guilty").
Sunny met her when he was 38 and she was in high school, heading to Stanford in 2003. So above and beyond "secret relationship with the boss", I could also see "not wanting to be seen as grooming/a groomed high school student" as a reason to keep things on the downlow.
In regards to why do people find personal insights into famous (or infamous) people's lives, I would presume that is more common than not, but of course others like yourself presumably find no such interesting in what her daily schedule is or Julia Roberts. As to why it would be relevant, assuming she wrote it, certainly seems to show her a certain type of person that would plan their day down to the minute and put things such as change (clothes), shower, and pretty much everything other than put one foot and from of the other. So if she were to portray herself as someone whose not big into details and thus has no idea what was going on at her company or the details, evidence like this would probably draw a picture of someone who is very much into the details and or other character qualities.
I don't think it exonerates her, whether or not it was written by her, or "evidence" of Balwani's "controlling ways". I think it absolutely portrays her a way in which she wanted to be portrayed for the longest time - ultra motivated, high energy, visionary, driven. I don't necessarily think there's anything inherently wrong in calling it out as looking far more like "the notepad of someone who _wants_ to be thought of in all those ways", as much as the reality. And I say that as someone who is chronically trying to "organize" my life, and getting tripped up on the investments to that end, rather than "putting in the work".
Edit: also, she doesn't get to control the narrative. "Here's evidence of how I lived my life, but you don't get to look at it or talk about it in ways other than I intended" and we are not obligated to stick to the "approved narrative".