Elon Musk had a brief relationship last fall with Sergey Brin’s wife, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, leading the Google co-founder to file for divorce earlier this year. The affair ended Musk and Brin’s long-standing close relationship, according to the Journal report. Musk dismissed the report as a “hit piece.”
Brin and his wife, Nicole Shanahan, were separated but still living together at the time of the affair in December, a person close to her told the Journal. Brin, who married Shanahan in 2018, filed for divorce in January, citing “irreconcilable differences,” several weeks after learning of the affair, the Journal reported.
Musk dismissed the Journal’s report in a tweet, calling it “total bs.”
“Sergey and I are friends and we were at a party together last night!” Musk tweeted. “I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with lots of other people around. Nothing romantic.”
This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and we were at a party together last night!
I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with lots of other people around. Nothing romantic.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022
Musk and Brin had been friends for a long time, with Musk reportedly often sleeping over at Brin’s home in Silicon Valley. Brin, who is worth $95 billion, has made several investments in Tesla since the company was founded in 2003. Along with Larry Page, Brin contributed to a $40 million funding round in 2006. When Tesla was facing a cash crunch in 2008, Musk sent out requests to several friends to invest, according to Ashlee Vance in her 2015 biography of Musk. Brin invested $500,000.
The Journal reported that Musk apologized to Brin at a party earlier this year, but that Brin, while acknowledging the apology, does not regularly speak with Musk.
Musk, in a later tweet, called the item a “Tesla hit piece.”
News of the alleged affair comes at a turbulent time for the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who is also the richest person on the planet. Earlier this month, Twitter sued Musk to complete its proposed $44 billion purchase of the social media platform after he told Twitter he was ending a deal to buy the company.
Around the same time, it was revealed that Musk and one of his top executives were secretly having twins in November. Musk has also fought allegations that SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle allegations the billionaire exposed himself to her during a flight.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Brin nor Shanahan, who run a foundation focused on reproductive justice, could immediately be reached for comment.
Update, 8:27 PM PT: Added Musk’s denial of the magazine report.