Elon Musk denies affair with Sergey Brin’s wife, Nicole Shanahan
Business mogul Elon Musk publicly denied having an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin. The Tesla CEO said Monday that a news story reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday was part of a "character assassination."
"I work crazy hours, so there just isn’t much time for shenanigans," Musk said in a tweet Monday. "None of the key people involved in these alleged wrongdoings were even interviewed!"
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Musk had a "brief" relationship with Shanahan in December 2021 in a time frame when Brin and his wife were separated but still living together. The affair allegedly led to a rupture and fracture in the friendship between Musk and Brin, who were longtime friends, according to The Journal.
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Musk criticized the report Sunday evening on Twitter by calling it "total BS" and suggesting he and Brin were still close friends. "Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!" he wrote. "I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic."
Brin filed for divorce from Shanahan in January, citing irreconcilable differences, according to California court documents obtained by The Journal. Brin founded Google in 1998 with Larry Page and stepped down as president of Alphabet (GOOGL), Google’s parent company, in 2019.
Musk, the wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes' list of billionaires, has found himself under a slew of headlines this summer. He been involved in a legal battle with Twitter over his $44 billion acquisition deal. And in June, his daughter petitioned a California court to recognize her new name and gender, not wanting to be associated with Musk's last name "in any way, shape or form."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk denies affair with Sergey Brin’s wife, Nicole Shanahan
