In a series of tweets, Musk said that he has barely seen the Google co-founder’s wife, Nicole Shanahan, in the past few years.
The article claimed that the alleged affair was the reason Brin and Shanahan had filed for divorce earlier this year and why the friendship between Brin and Musk allegedly ended. It did not name the sources of the information but said they were “people familiar with the matter.”
Twitter page Whole Mars Catalog shared the Wall Street Journal article and Musk replied a few hours later.
“Elon Musk’s allegedly banged Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wife leading to the couple’s divorce filing. The two are apparently no longer friends,” Whole Mars Catalog tweeted.
Musk replied: “This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night. I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”
Replying to Musk, Whole Mars Catalog joked with Musk about the article, tweeting: “Phew glad to hear that. Keep your d*ck in your pants, they’re out for your head.”
Musk replied: “Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh)”
A Tesla Twitter fan page, Tesla Hype, then retweeted one of Musk’s previous tweets from May where he claimed that political attacks against him would increase “dramatically” over the next few months.
Replying to this, Musk tweeted: “Yeah, the character assassination attacks have reached a new level this year, but the articles are all nothing-burgers.
“I work crazy hours, so there just isn’t much time for shenanigans. None of the key people involved in these alleged wrongdoings were even interviewed.”
The Wall Street Journal said that Musk was engaged in a brief affair late in 2021 with Shanahan.
At the time of the alleged affair, in December, Brin and his wife were separated but still living together according to the WSJ report. The article cited a person close to Shanahan as the source.
As well as denying the allegations, Musk took aim at the Wall Street Journal for the piece.
“WSJ has run so many bs hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count. It’s embarrassing for them, frankly,” he tweeted.
“They once wrote an article saying FBI was about to arrest me, so I called the FBI to ask what’s up and they said the WSJ article was total bs. Just more shortseller fud.”
When asked what people can do about this, Musk said the Wall Street Journal should be called out for their actions.
“WSJ is supposed to have a high standard for journalism and, right now, they are way sub tabloid. WSJ should be running stories that actually matter to their readers and have solid factual basis, not third party random hearsay,” Musk said.
Newsweek has contacted Sergey Brin for comment.
