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Tesla CEO Elon Musk made headlines after a recent Wall Street Journal article leveled some severe allegations against the billionaire.
The WSJ report, written by Kirsten Grind and Emily Glazer, accused Musk of having an affair with Google founder Sergei Brin's estranged wife, Nicole Shanahan. Published on July 25, the report further claimed that the alleged affair had taken its toll on Musk's friendship with Brin.
Musk responded to the claims within a few hours and referred to the allegations in the article as "total bs." The SpaceX founder and CEO added that he had met Sergei Brin just the night prior, and tweeted a picture of him with Brin at the party. Musk further clarified that he had only met Nicole Shanahan twice in three years, that too in the presence of other people.
Following Musk's rebuttal to the claims made by WSJ's writers, a legion of Twitter supporters targeted the authors, Kirsten Grind and Emily Glazer. Meanwhile, Nicole Shanahan's attorney told DailyMail that the claims were "not only an outright lie but also defamatory."
WSJ article alleges that Elon Musk and Nicole Shanahan had an affair, Musk denies all claims
The article claimed that Elon Musk (51) had an alleged affair with Sergei Brin's wife at the time, Nicole Shanahan (33), which reportedly caused the 48-year-old Google founder to file for a divorce. Kirsten Grind and Emily Glazer also stated that the incident negatively impacted Musk's long-term friendship with Brin.
As per WSJ, the alleged affair took place in December last year. Brin filed for divorce in January 2022.
The article stated:
"In recent months, there has been growing tension between the two men and their teams, according to the people familiar with the matter. Mr. Brin has ordered his financial advisers to sell his personal investments in Mr. Musk's companies, some of those people said. It couldn't be learned how large those investments are, or whether there have been any sales."
Nicole Shanahan's attorney responds to the claims
In an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com, Shanahan's lawyer Bryan Freedman said:
"Make no mistake, any suggestion that Nicole had an affair with Elon Musk is not only an outright lie but also defamatory."
The attorney did not mention if they were preparing to sue WSJ for their defamatory article. However, it is possible that Shanahan, who is also a lawyer, may decide to sue the publication.
Elon Musk's response to the claims
The Wall Street Journal's senior editor Michael Siconolfi shared the article on his Twitter page. Elon Musk posted a picture of him at a party with Sergei Brin as a reply to the post. Musk drew reference to the famed saying, "Liar, Liar, pants on fire," in the caption.
Previously, Musk responded to his admirers' tweets and stated that Michael Siconolfi had zero "journalistic integrity." In another of his replies, he reminded his followers that WSJ had once written a piece about how the FBI was about to arrest him. However, it must be noted that the 2018 WSJ article in question talks about the FBI's investigation into Musk's alleged misstatement of production figures at Tesla and does not mention any plans for his arrest at the time.
Elon Musk further said that WSJ and Michael Siconolfi had been associated with several hit-pieces against him. The entrepreneur hopes that Nicole Shanahan would sue the publication as she is not a public figure and potentially has a higher chance of winning a defamation lawsuit.
Netizens demand an apology from WSJ after their false claims about Elon Musk's affair with Sergei Brin's wife
Following Musk's response to the claims, his followers targeted the WSJ chief editor Michael Siconolfi and the authors. A legion of tweets demanded that the publication should apologize to Musk, Brin, and Shanahan. Meanwhile, others hoped that Musk or Shanahan would sue WSJ.
A few seemed to agree with Musk's assessment that the article was a hit-piece against the billionaire. Neither Brin nor Shanahan has made any public statements regarding the allegations as of yet.
