A billboard in New York City's Times Square featuring Oracle co-president Charles Phillips and longtime lover YaVaughnie Wilkins has been taken down according to the New York Daily News.
The billboard, along with others reported in New York and in Atlanta and San Francisco, caused quite a stir, as did a website featuring years of photographs with Phillips and Wilkins that was advertised on it.
Yesterday, Phillips issued a statement through a spokesperson admitting to the affair and stating that he and his wife, Karen Phillips, had initiated divorce proceedings in 2008.
That same year, Wilkins moved into a palacious estate in Hillsborough near Oracle's headquarters apparently purchased by Phillips through a series of shell companies, and photos presented on the Web site show Wilkins enjoying a game of tennis on the grounds.
The house was sold just last month, which might explain the sudden appearance of the billboard which probably cost many thousands of dollars, though it's not clear who paid for it -- or who asked for it to be taken down. At least one of the billboards was placed through ClearChannel.
A lawyer for Karen Phillips declined to comment, and a visit from the Daily News to Phillips's home in Manhattan went unanswered.
Though Wilkins did not comments directly in the press, according to the designer of the Web site she emailed "I've become famous."
Jackson West has to admit, this was far more entertaining than the usual "anonymous" tip to Page Six.
