Elon Musk copped to going through a dry spell while rebuffing a Wall Street Journal report that his friendship with Google co-founder Sergey Brin had collapsed after he had a “brief affair” with Brin’s estranged wife, Nicole Shanahan. 

According to the Journal, Musk and Shanahan’s affair occurred late last year and not only ended Brin and Musk’s friendship but also caused Brin and Shanahan to file for divorce. But on Sunday night, July 24, Musk responded to a person who’d shared the article on Twitter, calling it “total bs.”

“Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!” Musk said. “I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”

As an extra assurance, the man who seemingly can’t stop having children (just like his father) added, “Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh).”

Musk and Brin’s friendship goes back a long time, with Brin even loaning Tesla about $500,000 when the company was struggling to stay afloat during the 2008 financial crisis. Musk repaid the favor in 2015 when he gave Brin one of Tesla’s first electric SUVs. But according to the Journal, that friendship has strained so much that Brin supposedly told his financial advisers to sell his personal stakes in Musk’s companies (it’s unclear how much Brin has invested in which companies or if any of those sales even happened).


As for Brin and Shanahan, the couple cited “irreconcilable differences” when they filed for divorce back in January. According to the filing, Brin said the couple had separated on Dec. 15, 2021, though they were reportedly still living together. Musk and Shanahan’s reported affair allegedly took place in early December 2021.