Elon Musk attends the 2022 Costume Institute Benefit celebrating In America: An Anthology of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.
Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Elon Musk had an affair with Sergey Brin’s estranged wife.
The Tesla CEO said he hopes Nicole Shanahan sues The Journal over the report.
Musk also said Brin told him this week that he doesn’t know anyone who could’ve spoken to the outlet.
Elon Musk said Sergey Brin’s estranged wife should sue The Wall Street Journal for reporting that they had an affair, and that he had just spoken to Brin this week.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Tesla billionaire was involved in a brief romance last year with Nicole Shanahan, Brin’s wife from whom he filed for divorce in January. Musk has denied the reporting, calling it “complete bs.”
In a tweet on Wednesday, the Musk suggested that Shanahan sue The Journal.
“As a ‘public person’, the standard to win a defamation lawsuit against a news org is almost impossible. They could say I’m Satan and the ‘source’ is their psychic!” Musk tweeted.
“Nicole is not a public person, so could win. I hope she sues them.”
Musk followed up the tweet by saying he spoke to Brin “yesterday” and “he says neither he nor anyone he knows has talked to WSJ.”
A spokesperson for News Corp, which owns The Journal, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Musk was responding to another tweet that cited a written statement from Bryan Freedman, Shanahan’s attorney.
Freedman had told the New York Post and DailyMail.com in a statement: “Make no mistake, any suggestion that Nicole [Shanahan] had an affair with Elon Musk is not only an outright lie but also defamatory.”
The Journal reported that the affair began in December 2021 during Art Basel in Miami while Brin and Shanahan were separated but still living together.
The report said Musk dropped to one knee at a party earlier this year and begged Brin for forgiveness. Brin acknowledged the apology but wasn’t “regularly” speaking with Musk, The Journal reported.
Musk has previously complained about the press and the attention on his personal life. He does not appear to have sued a media publication before.
Earlier this month, Insider’s Julia Black reported that he had twins last November with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neurolink, one of Musk’s companies.