Elon Musk denies newspaper report of affair with wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin

Mr Musk, the co-founder of Tesla, had an alleged liaison in early December in Miami with Mr Brin’s wife Nicole Shanahan, according to reports

Elon Musk said in a post on Twitter, where he has more than 100m followers, that the Wall Street Journal’s story was untrue, saying he has seen Mr Brin’s wife twice in three years, both times in the presence of other people, and there was 'nothing romantic' between the pair. File picture: AP /Susan Walsh

Elon Musk denied he had an affair with Sergey Brin’s wife, after the Wall Street Journal reported the liaison led the Google co-founder to order his advisers to sell his investments in Mr Musk’s companies.

Mr Musk, the co-founder of Tesla, had an alleged liaison in early December in Miami with Mr Brin’s wife Nicole Shanahan, the paper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. 

That ended the long friendship between Mr Musk, 51, and Mr Brin, who helped support the electric carmaker during the 2008 financial crisis. Mr Brin, 48, filed for divorce from Ms Shanahan in January.

Mr Musk said in a post on Twitter, where he has more than 100m followers, that the Wall Street Journal’s story was untrue, saying he has seen Mr Brin’s wife twice in three years, both times in the presence of other people, and there was “nothing romantic” between the pair. 

He also added he was still friends with Mr Brin.

"This is total bs. 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," he tweeted. 

The size of Mr Brin’s personal investments in Mr Musk’s companies is not known, and it is unclear whether there have been any sales, the newspaper said. 

Mr Musk is the world’s richest person with a $242bn (€237bn) fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Mr Brin is the eighth-wealthiest, with a net worth of $94.6bn. 

This is total bs. 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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022

The alleged affair is the latest in a string of revelations about Mr Musk’s personal life. Reports earlier this year said he became the father to twins born to a senior executive at his artificial intelligence startup Neuralink

Another of his companies, SpaceX, paid an employee $250,000 to settle a claim she was sexually harassed by Mr Musk in 2016, according to Insider. 

Mr Musk said the accusations were “utterly untrue” and designed to interfere with his acquisition of Twitter, an agreement which he is now trying to exit.

Mr Musk’s affair with Ms Shanahan took place in December at Art Basel in Miami, and Mr Musk at another event asked Mr Brin for forgiveness, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Brin and Ms Shanahan are currently negotiating a settlement, with Ms Shanahan seeking more than $1bn, the Wall Street Journal said, even though there is a prenuptial agreement. 

Meanwhile, Tesla increased its capital expenditure plan by billions of dollars after Mr Musk referred to the carmaker’s new factories as “gigantic money furnaces”. 

The revised plan was revealed in a filing that also disclosed details of the electric-vehicle maker’s Bitcoin sales and another subpoena from securities regulators related to Mr Musk’s 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private.

Tesla said it received the subpoena on June 13 from the US Securities and Exchange Commission about its compliance with an agreement to oversee Mr Musk’s tweeting. 

It was the second subpoena the SEC has issued in months regarding how the company has governed its CEO’s social media postings after he claimed in 2018 to have had secured funding to take Tesla private.

• Bloomberg