Elon Musk had a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin, leading the Google co-founder to file for divorce earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The two entrepreneurs were formerly close friends, but the affair ended their friendship, the Journal reported.
Brin and his wife, Nicole Shanahan, were separated but still living together at the time of the affair in December, a person close to her told the Journal. Brin, who married Shanahan in 2018, filed for divorce in January, citing “irreconcilable differences,” several weeks after learning of the affair, the Journal reported.
Musk apologized to Brin at a party earlier this year, begging for forgiveness for the affair, according to the Journal. Brin acknowledged the apology but isn’t on regular speaking terms with Musk, people with knowledge of the event told the Journal.
Musk and Brin had been longtime friends, with Musk reportedly often sleeping at Brin’s Silicon Valley home. Brin, who’s worth $95 billion, also reportedly made a $500,000 investment in Tesla during the 2008 financial crisis when the carmaker was struggling with production issues.
News of the alleged affair comes at a turbulent time for the Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO, who’s also the wealthiest person on the planet. Earlier this month, Twitter sued Musk to complete his proposed $44 billion purchase of the social media platform after he informed Twitter he was ending the agreement to buy the company.
Around the same time, it was revealed that Musk and one of his top executives secretly had twins in November. Musk has also battled allegations that SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle allegations that the billionaire exposed himself to her during a flight.
Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Brin nor Shanahan, who runs a foundation focused on reproductive justice, could immediately be reached for comment.