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

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

Mr Musk, the co-founder of Tesla, had an alleged liaison in early December in Miami with Nicole Shanahan, the Journal 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 carmaker during the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Brin, 48, filed for divorce from Ms Shanahan in January.

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

Mr Musk is the world’s richest person with a $US242 billion ($350b) fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Brin is the eighth-wealthiest, with a net worth of $US94.6b.

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 startup Neuralink.

Another of his companies, SpaceX, paid an employee $US250,000 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’s now trying to exit.

Mr Musk’s affair with Ms Shanahan took place in December at Art Basel in Miami, and Mr Musk at another event asked Mr Brin for forgiveness, according to the Journal.

Mr Brin and Ms Shanahan are currently negotiating a settlement, with Ms Shanahan seeking more than $US1b, the Journal said, even though there’s a prenuptial agreement.

Bloomberg