--- title: "Elon Musk Reportedly Took Ketamine and Had Sex With the Wife of the Cofounder of Google" description: "New reporting by the New York Times alleges that Elon Musk did ketamine and had an affair with Nicole Shanahan." date: "2024-05-23" modified: "2024-05-23" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-ketamine-nicole-shanahan" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Google" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "Google" - "nicole shanahan" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Reportedly Took Ketamine and Had Sex With the Wife of the Cofounder of Google ![New reporting by the New York Times alleges that Elon Musk did ketamine and had an affair with Nicole Shanahan.]() *\Image: Apu Gomes via Getty / Futurism\* ## High Times The *New York Times* ran an [excoriating investigation]() this week into Nicole Shanahan, the vice presidential running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr — yes, the same third-party candidate who [recently claimed]() that a worm had eaten part of his brain. The story is deeply unflattering, suggesting that RFK Jr likely picked Shanahan as a running mate primarily because she has an enormous amount of money to contribute to his campaign. She gained most of that fortune, which reportedly totals over $1 billion, in the settlement from a divorce with Sergey Brin, the cofounder of Google — a split precipitated, according to the newspaper's reporting, by a ketamine-fueled tryst with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "At that party, Elon Musk and Ms. Shanahan took ketamine, a popular party drug that is legal with a prescription, and disappeared together for several hours, according to four people briefed on the event and documents related to it," the *NYT* reported. "Ms. Shanahan later told Mr. Brin that she had had sex with Mr. Musk, three of the people said. She also relayed the details to friends, family and advisers." ## Horsing Around To close Musk-watchers, there won't be a lot of unfamiliar words in that last paragraph. The CEO has been dogged by rumors of both [infidelity]() — including [prior allegations]() of the affair with Shanahan — as well as [drug use, including ketamine](). But the story also contains new details that look unfavorable for Musk. For one thing, the multihyphenate billionaire has defended his ketamine use in the past by [saying it was prescribed](). While it's true that there's [some interest in potentially therapeutic mental health benefits]() of the drug, there's also a [lot of expert skepticism](). Most people, at the end of the day, just take it to have a good time — and slamming it at a party in the context of an extramarital dalliance doesn't sound very clinical at all. That's not where the lack of professionalism ends, either. Musk has a longstanding frenemy dynamic with the cofounders of Google, [falling out with Brin's cofounder Larry Page]() over Musk's fear of artificial intelligence (though confusingly, Musk has now seemingly reversed his AI-cautious outlook and started [his own AI venture]().) There's a clear line, though, between disagreeing with someone's view on tech and sleeping with their spouse as some sort of macho power play — a [longstanding pattern in Musk's behavior](). One thing's for clear: as usual, the rich think that special rules should apply to them. "I’m shocked the NYT is letting you run something like this," Shanahan texted the *New York Times* in response to questions about the story. **More on Musk:** [*This Pedantic Elon Musk Tweet Perfectly Illustrates Why Nobody Can Stand Him Anymore*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()