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

Elon Musk has responded to reports that he had an affair with the wife of his longtime friend and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Elon Musk has denied having an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Responding to an exclusive report published by The Wall Street Journal, the Tesla boss said the story was “total BS”.

“Sergey [Brin] and I are friends and were at a party together last night!” he wrote on Twitter.

“I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”

Musk followed up with a tweet stating, “Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh),” describing the report as a “hit piece.”

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Elon Musk has denied having an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Picture: Getty Images

According to the report, Musk apologised for the alleged affair and got down on one knee and begged Google co-founder Sergey Brin for forgiveness.

The affair with his wife was alleged to have taken place at a swank art festival in Miami Beach last year, according to a bombshell report.

The report continued that Brin filed for divorce after learning his wife cheated on him with Musk — whose electric-car company, Tesla, was propped up by Brin during the 2008 financial crisis.

The two tech titans were longtime friends — with Musk saying that for years he regularly crashed at Brin’s Silicon Valley home — until the Tesla titan’s brief fling with Nicole Shanahan last year, the Wall Street Journal says.

Brin and Shanahan were separated but still living together at the time of the affair in December, a person close to her told the Journal.

Brin, whose net worth is $129 billion, filed for divorce in January, citing “irreconcilable differences”.

The move came several weeks after he found out Musk and Shanahan had hooked up, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Brin also ordered his financial advisers to liquidate his investments in Musk’s various companies amid growing tension between the billionaires, sources told the Journal.

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Sergey Brin and Nicole Shanahan. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 02: Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

The world’s richest man apologised to his longtime friend at a party earlier this year, people with knowledge of the stunning incident told the WSJ.

Brin acknowledged Musk’s professed remorse but still isn’t speaking to him regularly, the sources added.

The fling reportedly took place in December at the annual Art Basel event, a multiday fair featuring exhibitions by international galleries and panel discussions attended by deep-pocketed collectors — after Musk broke up with Canadian pop singer Grimes in September.

Shanahan’s marriage to Brin was also strained at the time over problems related to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns and the care of their daughter, people familiar with the relationship told the Journal.

Shanahan is reportedly seeking more than $1.4 billion from Brin and the pair is involved in divorce mediation proceedings.

They’ve been unable to strike a deal, with Brin’s side saying Shanahan wants much more than a prenuptial agreement calls for and Shananan’s side saying she signed the pact under duress while pregnant, sources familiar with the negotiations told the Journal.

In 2008, Brin provided Musk with a $500,000 lifeline for Tesla when it was struggling to increase production amid the Great Recession.

Elon Musk and Grimes. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Musk, now worth $253 billion, later rewarded Brin by giving him one of Tesla’s first all-electric SUVs.

Musk, a 51-year-old divorcee, has fathered 10 kids, the first of whom died of sudden-infant death syndrome in 2002.

Five of the other kids were born to Musk’s ex-wife, Justin Wilson. Musk also fathered three children with Canadian singer Grimes - one born by a surrogate - and earlier this month confirmed having twins with an executive at his brain-chip company Neuralink.

Those children were born just weeks before Grimes gave birth to the second of their kids.

“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” Musk tweeted July 7.

“A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far.”

A lawyer for Brin declined to comment, the Journal said.

Neither Musk nor a spokeswoman for Shanahan, who runs a foundation focused on reproductive justice, responded to requests for comment, the Journal said.

- With the New York Post

Originally published as Elon Musk denies having affair with wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin