San Francisco, July 25: Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday denied that he had a brief affair with Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife Nicole Shanahan that allegedly led to their divorce earlier this year, saying there was nothing "romantic" with Shanahan.

A Wall Street Journal report claimed on Sunday that "Musk engaged in a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin, prompting the Google co-founder to file for divorce earlier this year and ending the tech billionaires' long friendship".

In a tweet, Musk said: "This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!" "I've only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic," the Tesla CEO added.

According to the report, the Musk and Shanahan's affair allegedly occurred at the 'Art Basel' event in Miami following the Tesla CEO's split with then-girlfriend Claire Boucher, famously known as Grimes. Elon Musk Denies Affair with Wife of Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin.

Brin and Shanahan were separated but still living together at the time. The couple's relationship was reportedly strained due to issues related to the Covid lockdowns and their three-year-old daughter.

Brin and Musk had been close friends but after the affair, their relationship soured. Brin has reportedly told advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk's companies. Brin himself was once called "the Google playboy", with human resources manager Heather Cairns calling his behaviour "a sexual harassment claim waiting to happen". Shanahan is seeking over $1 billion from Brin's $100 billion fortune as part of the divorce proceedings.

Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Musk secretly had twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at his brain-chip startup Neuralink, in November 2021, just weeks before he welcomed a second child with Grimes via surrogacy in December. In May, a former SpaceX flight attendant accused the company of paying her $250,000 to keep quiet about an incident involving Musk.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2022 12:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).