Elon Musk denies ‘romantic’ affair with Google co-founder Brin’s wife
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, said late on Sunday on Twitter that he and Google co-founder Sergey Brin remain friends and refuted a claim that he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, Brin’s wife.
Musk’s tweets were in response to a Wall Street Journal article that claimed, according to unnamed sources, that he had a brief relationship with Shanahan.
The relationship between the two tech billionaires was alleged to have terminated as a result of the affair, which led Brin to divorce Shanahan earlier this year.
Dismissing the report, Musk tweeted:
“Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”
Outside of regular business hours, Reuters’ inquiries for comments from Tesla and Google, whose parent firm is Alphabet Inc, were not immediately answered.
Brin and Shanahan could not be reached right away for comment by Reuters. The WSJ’s request for comment from a lawyer for Brin was refused, and Shanahan didn’t answer.
The Journal reported on Brin’s divorce filing, citing documents it claimed were filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleging “irreconcilable disagreements.” Reuters was unable to independently ascertain whether divorce papers had been submitted.
The WSJ reported that after learning of the affair, Brin told his advisers to sell personal shares in Musk’s businesses.
The newspaper said that it was unable to determine how much money was invested or whether any sales were made.
When Reuters reached out to The Wall Street Journal for comment regarding Musk’s denial of the article outside of typical US business hours, they did not answer right away.