Who Is Nicole Shanahan? New Report Claims Elon Musk Had Ketamine With Google Co-Founder's Ex-Wife During Affair

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is once again in the spotlight, this time over allegations of ketamine use and a reported affair with Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer and the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. According to The New York Times, in 2021, Musk and Shanahan took ketamine together at a party, with the information confirmed by eight different sources and documents.

Ms. Shanahan, who is also a potential running mate for Republican Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for the US Presidential polls, hosted a birthday party in New York in 2021 where Musk, a longtime friend of Brin, was present.

Did Elon Musk Have Ketamine With Google Co-Founder’s Ex-Wife?

Later that year, Musk and Shanahan crossed paths again at a private party in Miami hosted by Musk’s brother. At this gathering, the SpaceX founder and Shanahan allegedly took ketamine together and disappeared for several hours, according to four people from the event who spoke to the NYT.

Shanahan, a 38-year-old lawyer, married Brin in 2018. During their five-year marriage, she socialized with the upper echelon of Silicon Valley society and used various recreational drugs, including ketamine, cocaine, and psychedelic mushrooms, according to eight people and documents reviewed by The New York Times. Three of these sources also stated that Shanahan took ketamine with Tesla founder Elon Musk at a party.

Three sources told the leading American daily that Ms. Shanahan even confessed to Sergey Brin that she “had had sex with Mr. Musk” and allegedly shared the details with friends, family, and others. Both Mr. Musk and Ms. Shanahan have denied the affair, according to a 2022 WSJ report.

Last year, Ms. Shanahan denied these claims of infidelity, revealing that Mr. Musk was only discussing her daughter’s autism treatment with her that night. She told People magazine that her career was “based on academic and intellectual credibility,” and that “I was being shamed internationally for being a cheater.” She described it as “utterly debilitating and humiliating” to be known “because of a sexual act.”

Ms. Shanahan and Mr. Brin separated soon after the party, with Brin filing for divorce in 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences,” as per court documents. The divorce process took nearly 18 months to settle, with Ms. Shanahan reportedly threatening self-harm during this period, according to the New York Times report. Their divorce was finalized last year. Shanahan reportedly received $1 billion in her divorce settlement last year.

Who Is Nicole Shanahan?

Shanahan, 38, is also an academic fellow at CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, where she works on a project applying data science to the prosecutorial process, according to the Stanford Law directory.

She grew up in California and attended Santa Clara University School of Law. Before meeting Brin at a yoga retreat in 2015, Shanahan was married to a finance executive.

Since 2018, Shanahan has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, including Pete Buttigieg, Marianne Williamson, Ro Khanna, and AOC’s 2020 primary challenger. However, this year, she was the primary funder of a controversial Super Bowl ad promoting RFK Jr.

Shanahan also made headlines in 2022 that she had an affair with Tesla CEO Elon Musk while married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin—a claim she denied—is a California-based attorney and founder of the patent technology company ClearAccessIP and the Bia-Echo Foundation.

She launched the foundation in 2019, donating $100 million to social programs focused on improving the criminal justice system, addressing climate change, and supporting fertility later in life. She has firsthand experience with fertility challenges, having struggled to become pregnant in her 30s, as reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

ALSO READ: USS Harder: US World War II Submarine Wreckage Unearthed After 80 Years Underwater