Google’s Sergey Brin quietly divorced wife in May, and Musk is linked to split

Search engine giant Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin quietly finalised his divorce from his wife Nicole Shanahan amid allegations of her affair with Elon Musk, Wall Street Journal reported.

According to Business Insider, the judge signed off on the divorce on May 26 this year. The tech boss had filed for divorce in January last year citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ after three-year-long marriage. The duo met had a yoga retreat in 2015, before tying the knot on November 11, 2018 as per court documents. Two weeks later, Brin and Shanahan became parents to their girl child.

As per the report, the couple will split legal and physical custody of their four-year-old daughter. The matters pertaining to spousal support, lawyer fees and division of assets were settled in a confidential arbitration.

The Insider report stated that Shanahan, who is a lawyer and the founder of non-profit Bia-Echo Foundation, did not contest the divorce but sought that the court award her spousal support.

According to report, the divorce was triggered by allegations of an affair between Shanahan and billionaire Elon Musk, who remained friends with the Google co-founder for years.

Musk, who also owns the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, had recalled the time when his company Tesla was struggling. Brin and other Google co-founder Larry Page still invested in his company.

Both Musk and Shanahan’s alleged affair dates back to 2021. In face, Musk on his platform X had rubbished the rumours of his affair with Brin’s ex-wife.

‘Nothing romantic’: Elon Musk

“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”, he had said in July.

In an interview to People magazine, Shanahan had also denied her having an extramarital relationship with the Tesla boss.

“Did Elon and I have sex, like it was a moment of passion, and then it was over? No,” she told the magazine. “Did we have a romantic relationship? No. We didn’t have an affair”, Shanahan added.

Sergey Brin was previously married to 23andMe’s cofounder Anne Wojcicki for eight years. One of Brin’s attorneys said that the danger arising out of disclosure of confidential information about the duo’s minor child is a significant concern.