Elon Musk denies report he had affair with Sergey Brin’s wife

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk denied he had an affair with Mr Sergey Brin’s wife, after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the liaison led the Google co-founder to sell his investments in Mr Musk’s companies.

Mr Musk had an alleged liaison in early December in Miami with Mr Brin’s wife Nicole Shanahan, WSJ said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

That ended the long friendship between Mr Musk, 51, and Mr Brin, who helped support the electric-car maker during the 2008 financial crisis. Mr Brin, 48, filed for divorce from Ms Shanahan in January.

Mr Musk said in a post on Twitter, where he has more than 100 million followers, that WSJ’s story was untrue. Mr Musk said he had seen Mr Brin’s wife twice in three years, both times in the presence of other people, and there was “nothing romantic” between the pair. Mr Musk also said he was still friends with Mr Brin.

Mr Brin had instructed his advisers to sell his personal investments in Mr Musk’s companies in recent months after learning that he had a brief affair with Ms Shanahan, according to WSJ.

The size of Mr Brin’s personal investments in Mr Musk’s companies is not known, and it is unclear whether there have been any sales, the newspaper said.

Mr Musk is the world’s richest person with a US$242 billion (S$336 billion) fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Mr Brin is the eighth wealthiest, with a net worth of US$94.6 billion.

The affair is the latest in a string of revelations about Mr Musk’s personal life.

Reports earlier this year said he became the father to twins born to a senior executive at his artificial intelligence start-up Neuralink.

Another of his companies, SpaceX, paid an employee US$250,000 to settle a claim she was sexually harassed by Mr Musk in 2016, according to Insider. Mr Musk said the accusations were “utterly untrue” and designed to interfere with his acquisition of Twitter, an agreement which he is now trying to exit.

Mr Brin and Ms Shanahan are currently negotiating a settlement, with Ms Shanahan seeking more than US$1 billion, WSJ said, even though there is a prenuptial agreement.