Nicole Shanahan, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is finally weighing in on allegations that she had an affair with Elon Musk.
The 37-year-old attorney and philanthropist, who took much of the heat surrounding the salacious claims that stemmed from a Wall Street Journal story published this time last year, told People she never had such a relationship with the controversial Tesla and SpaceX honcho, 52.
“My career has been based on academic and intellectual credibility, and I was being shamed internationally for being a cheater,” Shanahan told People. “To be known because of a sexual act is one of the most humiliating things … it was utterly debilitating.”
“Did Elon and I have sex, like it was a moment of passion, and then it was over? No,” said Shanahan, who was accused of having hooked up with Musk in December 2021, while she and Brin were separated but still under one roof. “Did we have a romantic relationship? No. We didn’t have an affair.”
Musk took to Twitter last July to call the reported tryst “total BS.”
“Sergey and I are friends,” Musk said of the fellow billionaire, who poured money into Tesla. “I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”
Rather, Shanahan said she and Musk merely discussed ways to help treat her daughter’s autism, due to his neurotechnology company, Neuralink, and the “generational ecosystem” of people in the tech world who “run ideas past each other.”
“To be painted with such a massive scarlet letter for it just seems so unfair,” said Shanahan, who has a “strong sense” of where the claims came from but is now “moving on.”
Mid-interview, Shanahan was informed via email from her lawyer that her divorce from Brin had been finalized.
“Today is a turning point of letting go,” she said.