Google co-founder’s ex-wife clears the air on alleged affair with Elon Musk

Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife Nicole Shanahan has cleared the air on her alleged affair with billionaire Elon Musk. In 2022, during her divorce from Sergey, Wall Street Journal had reported that Nicole had a brief affair with Elon which eventually led to her separation from her husband.

In a recent interview with People magazine, Nicole recalled the difficult times when reports of her alleged affair with Elon was published across the globe.

“I remember feeling like everything I had ever worked for was under siege by a press cycle that had no idea what was going on in my life and who I was,” said Nicole.

“Did Elon and I have sex, like it was a moment of passion, and then it was over? No,” she told People magazine.

“Did we have a romantic relationship? No. We didn’t have an affair,” she added.

During her interview with People, Nicole highlighted that she only interacted with Elon as a collegial friend, with whom she discussed her daughter’s autism treatment, given his background with “Neuralink,” his neurotechnology company. She shared that such conversations were common in the Silicon Valley circle of which her husband was also a part of.

“It was a conversation that was very meaningful about life and how people show up for one another. To be painted with such a massive scarlet letter for it just seems so unfair,” shared Nicole.

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Notably, Nicole’s husband Sergey had helped fund Tesla, Elon’s electric car company.

“There’s a community of friendship involving not just Sergey and Elon but many other people in the tech world — investors, founders, really big thinkers, dreamers and doers,” said Nicole.

“Elon was another person in this group of people. There’s almost this generational ecosystem and it’s a community. You run ideas past each other and you ask questions,” she added.

“Is it as close as my girlfriends? No. My girlfriends that I’ve known for 10, 15 years that we’re like sisters to each other? No, it’s not that relationship — but I would call it a collegial environment.” explained Nicole.