San Francisco, Jul 25 (IANS): Tesla CEO Elon Musk had an affair with Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife Nicole Shanahan that allegedly led to their divorce earlier this year, the media reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the couple filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences".

"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," the report said late on Sunday, citing sources.

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.

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.