The reason Elon Musk's friendship with Sergey Brin has apparently gone south? A fling the Tesla founder had with the Google co-founder's estranged wife, according to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Musk, for his part, is staunchly denying the report. Brin separated from Nicole Shanahan late last year and filed for divorce less than three weeks later, on Jan. 4 of this year. The sources say he filed several weeks after finding out about Shanahan and Musk, who allegedly had a brief romantic entanglement at the beginning of December at the Art Basel festival in Miami. At the time, the sources say, issues related to the COVID lockdowns and care for their daughter, age 3, had already taken a toll on Brin's relationship with Shanahan.
Earlier this year, the sources say, Musk took a knee at a party and apologized profusely for his involvement with Shanahan; Brin reportedly acknowledged that, but is not in regular contact with Musk despite the mea culpa. Their longtime and once-close relationship (Musk, for example, says he often used to sleep at Brin's Silicon Valley home, and Brin gave him money in 2008 when Tesla was struggling) has apparently been going through a rough time recently, with Brin reportedly ordering his financial advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk's companies.
Meanwhile, Brin's divorce looks like it could get ugly; Shanahan reportedly wants more than $1 billion and is claiming she signed their prenup, which entitles her to much less, under duress while pregnant. (Musk, meanwhile, also had a baby with one of his partners and twins with another around the same time as Art Basel.) "This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!" Musk tweeted in response to a tweet about the article. "I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic." He later added, "Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh)." Read the full WSJ exclusive here. (More Elon Musk stories.)
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