ELON Musk had a brief affair last fall with the wife of the billionaire co-founder of Google Sergey Brin, ending their long friendship, a report has claimed.
The alleged affair prompted Brin, 48, to file for divorce earlier this year and end the friendship between the tech billionaires, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin and Nicole Shannahan attend the 2017 Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center[/caption]
Musk, 51, is the richest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $240 billion, while Brin is ranked eighth world-wide, with a $95 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Both were long time friends, with Musk saying for years he regularly crashed at Brin’s home in Silicon Valley.
Tensions between the two men and their teams have been growing over recent months, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
Brin filed for divorce from Nicole Shanahan in January this year, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to records filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
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The divorce filing was made several weeks after Brin learned of the brief affair, those sources told the WSJ.
Brin is said to have ordered his financial advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk’s companies, some of those people said, according to the report.
It is unclear just how big those investments are or whether there has been any sales yet.
At the time of the alleged liaison in early December, Brin and his wife are said to have separated but still living together, according to a person close to Ms. Shanahan, the news outlet reports.
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In the divorce filing, Brin cited December 15, 2021, as the date of the couple’s separation.
In an interview earlier this month with the news website Puck, Shanahan said of the divorce filing: “I hope for Sergey and I to move forward with dignity, honesty and harmony for the sake of our child. And we are both working towards that.”
Musk has been in the spotlight recently, following a string of personal and business issues.
He has faced manufacturing problems with his Tesla company and a court battle over his wish to backout from a $44bn bid for the social media site Twitter.
Musk’s private life has also come under scrutiny over the previous few months.
He has been accused of exposing himself to a flight attendant at his aerospace company SpaceX – although he has denied the allegations.
Claims have also been made he had twins late last year with a female executive at Neuralink, a company he co-founded.
Brin and Shanahan, who have been married for nearly four years, are said to have met at a yoga retreat called Wanderlust around seven year ago, a personal familiar with their relationship told the WSJ.
Brin had been previously married to Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of genetics company 23andMe Inc., and Shanahan to a finance executive.
According to sources who spoke to the WSJ, Brin and Shanahan’s marriage was already facing problems in the fall of 2021, partly due to the Covid pandemic shutdowns and the care of their three-year-old daughter.
The alleged affair with Musk is said to have taken place in early December 2021, at the Art Basel event in Miami, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.
The event takes place over a number of days and attracts wealthy attendees from all over the world.
Musk is said to have dropped to one knee in front of Brin at a party earlier this year and apologized profusely for the transgression and begged for forgiveness, people with knowledge of the incident told the news outlet.
Brin is said to have acknowledged the apology but still isn’t speaking regularly with Musk, those people claimed.
The alleged liaison is said to have happened after Musk broke up with on-off girlfriend, the singer Grimes, in September.
Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, and Musk had a second child, a daughter, via surrogate in December 2021.
Musk’s twins with Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink executive, were born last fall.
Brin and Shanahan are now said to be involved in divorce mediation, with Shanahan thought to be seeking more than $1bn, people familiar with the negotiations told the WSJ.
Nicole Shanahan and Sergey Brin are now said to be in divorce mediations[/caption]
