• Lawyer Nicole Shanahan spoke out almost a 12 months after a scandal involving Elon Musk.
• Sources had informed WSJ that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk whereas married to Google’s Sergey Brin.
• Shanahan and Musk denied the affair, and Shanahan mentioned the scandal was “completely debilitating.”

Nicole Shanahan mentioned it was “completely debilitating” after The Wall Avenue Journal reported final 12 months that unnamed sources alleged that she had an affair with Elon Musk.

Shanahan, an legal professional and Google cofounder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife, denied the affair. Brin’s lawyer had declined to remark on the time. The Journal’s report had cited a number of sources alleging an affair had precipitated a rift in Musk and Brin’s longtime friendship and led Shanahan and the Google cofounder to file for divorce. Musk referred to as the report “complete bs” on Twitter final 12 months and shared an image of himself at a celebration with Brin. Shanahan’s legal professional referred to as the story an “outright lie” in a press release final 12 months.

Shanahan is now talking out on the whole scandal in an interview with Those that was revealed on Wednesday— her first in-depth interview because the Journal’s report.

Shanahan once more denied any romantic or sexual relationship with Musk, telling Folks she solely had “collegial” conversations with the Tesla CEO about the best way to assist her daughter, who has autism. The legal professional mentioned she’d requested Musk about autism remedy as a consequence of his background with Neuralink, a brain-computer interface firm that goals to permit individuals to in the future talk utilizing solely their thoughts. Up to now, Musk has mentioned Neuralink’s mind chips might in the future “clear up” autism and schizophrenia.

“It was a dialog that was very significant about life and the way individuals present up for each other,” Shanahan informed Folks. “To be painted with such an enormous scarlet letter for it simply appears so unfair.”

Shanahan informed Those that she has solely lately formally divorced Brin, after a 17-month authorized course of. The 2 had been separated on the time the report of the alleged affair got here out final 12 months, she mentioned. 

“To be recognized due to a sexual act is likely one of the most humiliating issues . . . it was completely debilitating,” she informed Folks. “I bear in mind feeling like every thing I had ever labored for was underneath siege by a press cycle that had no concept what was occurring in my life and who I used to be,” she added.

Shanahan, Musk, and representatives for Brin didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Insider forward of publication.

The legal professional, who based the Bia-Echo Basis, mentioned she has since realized to maneuver on from the scandal, including that she’d struggled to adapt the billionaire life-style all alongside.

“It is almost unattainable to have mega wealth and be deeply grounded,” Shanahan informed Folks, including that there is a sense of “disconnectedness” and lack of group you expertise as a billionaire. 

Within the interview, Shanahan addressed a variety of subjects, from her early profession and first assembly Brin at Stanford College to her newest firm, a VC agency referred to as Planeta Ventures.

Learn Folks’s full interview with Shanahan on its web site.