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25th Jul 2022

Elon Musk denies affair with Google co-founder’s wife

Kieran Galpin

Nicole Shanahan

He’s rallied the Twitter hordes

Elon Musk has denied having an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin after reports suggested their friendship ended when Brin found out.

The Tesla founder took to Twitter on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported that his affair with Nicole Shanahan ultimately eroded his friendship with Brin, 48.

“This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!” he posted to his 10m Twitter followers, most of which are bots. “I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”

According to a source familiar with the situation, Musk engaged in a brief affair with Shanahan late last year, prompting Brin to file for divorce earlier this year and break off his friendship with Musk.

“I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic,” Musk added on Twitter. He also claimed as the Wall Street Journal has run “so many bs hit pieces” on Tesla and Musk himself.

Brin and Shanahan are currently negotiating a divorce settlement despite having a prenuptial agreement. According to sources, the settlement could be as much as $1bn ($830m).

Musk seems to be featured in scandal after scandal as of late, having just last week posted a shirtless selfie that instantly went viral. But the word on everyone’s lips is Twitter; after all, the SpaceX visionary was slated to buy the platform for $44bn.

But Musk has since taken a step back from the deal, and Twitter is not happy.

In response, the social media giant filed a lawsuit for breaking the contract, hoping to force Musk’s hand.

“Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, [Mr] Musk apparently believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away,” the lawsuit, filed in Delaware, reads.

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