Nicole Shanahan finally spoke out regarding her relationship with Elon Musk, after a Wall Street Journal report alleged that she had an affair with the billionaire in July 2022. Nearly a year after the original report was published, Nicole, 37, broke her silence and denied having an affair with Elon, 52, in an interview with People, published on Wednesday, July 5.
The original report alleged that shortly following Nicole’s December 2021 separation from her ex-husband, Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, 49, she engaged in a very brief affair with Elon. Both the attorney and Twitter owner denied the affair, but WSJ has stood by its reporting. Nicole reiterated that she and Elon didn’t have any type of physical or romantic connection. “Did Elon and I have sex, like it was a moment of passion, and then it was over? No,” she told People. “Did we have a romantic relationship? No. We didn’t have an affair.”
While she denied an affair, Nicole did admit to having a discussion with Elon, which she said was about his Neuralink technology, and she said there’s a close friendship within the world of tech and entrepreneurs. “It was a conversation that was very meaningful about life and how people show up for one another. To be painted with such a massive scarlet letter for it just seems so unfair,” she said. “There’s almost this generational ecosystem and it’s a community. You run ideas past each other and you ask questions.”
The piece also revealed that Nicole had just finalized her divorce from Sergey, who she had been married to since 2018. The pair share a daughter Echo, 4. She revealed that after the WSJ report was published, she felt “hurt” by the story, as she read the many different interpretations of the news. She said that after the split, she had many loved ones offering her support. “There were a lot of people here that I knew prior to my life with Sergey that were there for me in ways that I could have never imagined,” she said.
Since the split, she also revealed that she’s been seeing Lightning Labs vice president Jacob Strumwasser, 39, and they had a “love ceremony” on a beach to show their commitment. “It’s been a process of trusting myself, trusting him, listening to my daughter and paying very close attention to household dynamics,” she said, while admitting that her daughter is her chief priority.