Elon Musk with former partner Grimes
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Billionaire Elon Musk has denied having an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as he hit out at “character assassinations” about his personal life.
Reports emerged on Sunday of an alleged fling between Musk and Nicole Shanahan in December last year, when she and Mr Brin were separated but still living together.
But Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX boss, took to Twitter on Sunday night to issue a series of denials, calling the original Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article “total bs”.
He also denied media reports of a threesome with actress Amber Heard and model Cara Delevingne, and told one follower: “Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh).”
“I work crazy hours, so there just isn’t much time for shenanigans”, added Musk.
This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022
I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.
It was reported that Musk’s friendship with Mr Brin had been ended by the affair, and the Google co-founder had filed for divorce from Ms Shanahan, a California-based lawyer, earlier this year.
“This is total bs”, wrote Musk on Twitter. “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 accused the newspaper of running “so many bs hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count”, and told a follower the best response is to “call them out on it”.
“WSJ is supposed to have a high standard for journalism and, right now, they are way sub tabloid,” he wrote.
“WSJ should be running stories that actually matter to their readers and have solid factual basis, not third-party random hearsay.”
Under a June 2020 news story about the threesome claim which emerged in Heard’s UK court battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp, Musk replied: “The character assassination attacks have reached a new level this year, but the articles are all nothing-burgers.
“I work crazy hours, so there just isn’t much time for shenanigans. None of the key people involved in these alleged wrongdoings were even interviewed!”
He has previously denied being “intimate” with Ms Delevingne, and says his relationship with Heard only began after she filed for divorce from Depp in 2016.
Musk, the world’s richest man, previously suggested that “political attacks on me will escalate” after he publicly shunned the US Democrat party and vowed to vote Republican.
His private life has been under intense scrutiny in recent months, including with the news he had fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his AI firm Neuralink in November 2021.
This was just a month before his second child with singer Grimes was born through a surrogate, meaning Musk is now a father-of-nine by three different women.
He is also currently locked in a legal fight over his abandoned plan to buy Twitter for $44 billion.
The social media platform sued after he pulled out of the proposed takeover, in a bid to force through the deal.
