A lawyer of Nicole Shanahan has strongly denied reports which say she slept with billionaire Elon Musk and warned that the claims in fact constitute defamation.
"Make no mistake, any suggestion that Nicole had an affair with Elon Musk is not only an outright lie but also defamatory," attorney Bryan Freedman told the Daily Mail.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany on March 22, 2022.
© AP Photo / Patrick Pleul
The report, published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, suggested that Musk and Shanahan had a fling in December, when her relations with her husband were going through a rough patch. According to sources cited by the newspaper, the affair was discovered by Brin, which led to his divorce with Shanahan. In addition, it claims that the Google founder decided to pull his investments from all projects and companies run by the Tesla founder.
Musk lambasted the report, adding that the "WSJ has run so many BS hit pieces" on him and on Tesla, that he lost count, noting that the news outlet should "have a high standard for journalism" and not run "third-party random hearsay".
The WSJ, however, stated they wouldn't backtrack on the piece:
"We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting," the newspaper said.