The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Elon Musk (Telsa CEO, SpaceX founder) had been having an affair in secret with Sergey Brin. Brin was forced to file for divorce. Musk fired back, calling the WSJ a “sub-tabloid” and claiming that he had just been hanging out with Brin that very day.
A Twitter post from this morning showing Brin and Musk partying appears to be authentic, as Musk replied to the tweet with, “Yes, Sergey was with me yesterday afternoon.”
Yeah, that was Sergey and me yesterday afternoon!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022
A completely different story is presented in the Journal article. It was updated Monday morning at 12:30 AM EST. Their first sentence sets them apart.
Elon Musk engaged in a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin, prompting the Google co-founder to file for divorce earlier this year and ending the tech billionaires’ long friendship, according to people familiar with the matter…
Messrs. Brin and Musk, among the nation’s most famous entrepreneurs, were longtime friends. Mr. Musk has said that for years he regularly crashed at Mr. Brin’s house in Silicon Valley.
Musk is the world’s richest person and is currently involved in a lawsuit filed by Twitter against him as he walked away from his $44 billion agreement to buy the social media giant. His personal life also has been the subject of tabloid fodder as he’s had many high-profile relationships and a whopping 10 kids with multiple women. In 1998, Brin co-founded Google along with Larry Page. He stepped down from management but remains on the board of Alphabet, now Google’s parent company.
The Journal claims Brin lost his marriage because of the affair.
Mr. Brin filed for divorce from Nicole Shanahan in January of this year, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to records filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. According to those who spoke out, the divorce was filed several weeks after Mr. Brin became aware of his brief affair.
Brin’s estimated worth is $95 billion. Shanahan is asking for $1 billion. That figure is higher than what she signed on for in her prenuptial agreement, but she claims she was under “duress” at the time because she was pregnant.
Although the Journal article remains available, they made a significant update to it:
About 11 hours after this article published online, Mr. Musk tweeted: “This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!” He added that he’d only seen Ms. Shanahan twice in three years with other people around and that it wasn’t romantic.
Elon is Elon. He also tweeted on Sunday.
Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2022
One user asked, “what can we do about it?” referring, presumably, to the Journal article and not the billionaire’s relationship issues. Musk’s response was in a tweet
They should be called out. WSJ should have a very high standard of journalism. Right now they’re way below tabloid. WSJ needs to run stories that are relevant and have solid facts, not hearsay from third parties.
It’s hard to know if we’ll ever find the full truth of this somewhat sordid episode. If the facts ever do come out, though, someone is going to be left with egg on their face—either the WSJ for shoddy reporting or Musk for lying through his teeth. Stay tuned, because one thing is for sure—Elon Musk is never boring.
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