Elon Musk broke off an old friendship with Google co-founder Sergey Brin after reportedly having an affair with his wife, Nicole Shanahan, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Sources familiar with the situation told the WSJ that the couple filed for divorce earlier this year, citing "irreconcilable differences".
Musk and Shanahan allegedly had an affair following Musk split from then-girlfriend Claire Boucher, also known as Grimes, at the high-profile Art Basel event in Miami. According to WSJ sources, Brin and Shanahan were separated but still living together at the time. The couple's relationship was reportedly strained due to COVID-19 lockdown issues and their three-year-old daughter.
Musk personal life is never far from his professional life, and that hasn't changed even as the world's richest man attempts to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Insider reported earlier this month that Musk had twins with Shivon Zillis, a top executive at his company Neuralink and a former Tesla employee. The twins were born just weeks before Musk and Boucher second child was born via surrogate, bringing Musk total known children to nine.
A former SpaceX flight attendant claimed in May that the company paid her $250,000 to keep quiet about an incident involving Musk. Musk allegedly asked the victim for a massage, exposed himself to her, and propositioned her for sex.
Meanwhile, Brin was nicknamed "the Google playboy" for his sexual interactions with employees, with human resources manager Heather Cairns describing his actions as "a sexual harassment claim waiting to happen." Brin's relationship with Google Glass marketing manager Amanda Rosenberg was detailed in a 2014 Vanity Fair report, which occurred while he was still married to 23andMe co-creator Anne Wojcicki and she was dating another Google executive. Brin secretly married Shanahan in 2018 after her divorce from Wojcicki in 2015. According to the WSJ, as part of the divorce proceedings, Shanahan is seeking a $1 billion cut of Brin's nearly $100 billion fortune.
Brin and Musk were close friends, according to the report. During the 2008 recession, Brin offered Musk-owned Tesla $500,000 in funding, and Musk returned the favour by making Brin one of the Model X first customers in 2015. According to the WSJ, Musk went so far as to get down on one knee and beg Brin's forgiveness at a party earlier this year. According to the report, the two are still not speaking on a regular basis, and Brin has instructed advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk companies.
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