Elon Musk allegedly had an extramarital affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.
The WSJ report, citing sources familiar to those involved, claims that Musk and Shanahan had a “brief affair,” which subsequently led Brin to file for divorce earlier this year, and ended a long-standing friendship between Brin and Musk.
Brin filed for divorce in January citing “irreconcilable differences,” and stated that the pair had been separated since Dec. 15. According to the report, Musk and Shanahan’s alleged fling occurred in early December, at the Art Basel event in Miami — which ran from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4.
Musk and Brin have long been friends, and have often spoken of their friendship in interviews. Brin was reportedly among the first people to be given a Tesla vehicle when production got off the ground, and Brin reportedly gave Musk $500,000 in 2008 to keep Tesla afloat during the financial crisis.
Since the alleged affair, Brin has reportedly sought to extricate himself from any involvement in Tesla or with Musk’s companies, and tensions between the billionaires have been mounting.
The alleged affair came several months after Musk had broken up with his on-and-off girlfriend, singer Grimes, with whom he shares two children. Musk is the father of 10 children in total — including one who recently changed their name and publicly disavowed Musk.
