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Notes on the Elon-Sergey Rift

The Journal’s decision to report that Elon Musk had a sexual "liaison" with Sergey Brin’s estranged wife—an affair that the parties now directly involved kinda-sorta deny—is being scrutinized in media circles with almost talmudic intensity. Is the reporting legit? And will Shanahan sue?

Sergey Brin
Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Theodore Schleifer
July 27, 2022

I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the last 48 hours about the explosive story in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Elon Musk had an affair—or in peak WSJ-speak, a “liaison”—with Nicole Shanahan, who was then separating from Google co-founder Sergey Brin. (The two are now divorced.) Earlier this month, after all, Shanahan candidly offered me her first comments about the divorce, along with her post-nuptial philanthropic plans (if you missed it, catch up here). The alleged Elon relationship, obviously, never came up.