Nicole Shanahan walked away with more than $1B after divorcing Google co-founder Sergey Brin: report
Nicole Shanahan, the vice presidential candidate picked by independent hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr, walked away with more than $1 billion following her divorce from ex-husband and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, according to a report.
Shanahan, the 38-year-old California native who worked as a lawyer in Silicon Valley before entering politics, finalized her divorce from Brin last year. Her split from Brin was reportedly triggered by an alleged affair she had with his longtime friend, tech mogul Elon Musk.
During their five-year marriage, Shanahan attended parties with other tech executives in Silicon Valley where she consumed recreational drugs including cocaine, ketamine and psychedelic mushrooms, according to The New York Times.
5Nicole Shanahan and Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, finalized their divorce last year after five years of marriage.Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Tensions in the marriage arose during the coronavirus pandemic, when the couple struggled with their daughter’s autism diagnosis during lockdowns, according to the Times.
In 2020, Brin and Shanahan learned that their daughter, Echo, was autistic. The autism diagnosis made Shanahan wonder whether the use of vaccines may have contributed to her daughter’s condition, according to the Times.
Shanahan started to go out more without Brin, according to the Times. Her partying escalated to the point where she needed an IV infusion after a night of heavy consumption of drugs and alcohol at an event in Miami in early 2021, the newspaper reported.
5Shanahan is alleged to have had an affair with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in late 2021, according to several reports.REUTERS
In late 2021, Shanahan attended a private party in Miami that was thrown by Kimbal Musk, the brother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on the sidelines of the Art Basel festival.
According to the Times, Shanahan and Musk both consumed ketamine and then disappeared together for several hours.
Shanahan later told her then-husband, Brin, that she and Musk had sex, the Times reported. She also told friends, family and advisers of the affair.
Musk has denied that he was intimate with Shanahan. News of the encounter was first reported in 2022 by The Wall Street Journal.
5Musk has denied claims of a ruptured friendship with Brin.
According to the Journal, Musk begged for Brin’s forgiveness by dropping to one knee and expressing remorse at a party in early 2022.
The alleged affair caused a rupture in the friendship between Brin and Musk — so much so that the Google co-founder divested himself of his holdings in Tesla and other Musk-owned entities, it was reported.
Musk denied that he and Brin were no longer friends. Shortly after the report, he sent The Post a photo of the two of them together at a party in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Shanahan also denied the report, telling People that she and Musk were discussing her daughter’s autism treatment.
5Brin, 49, is the world’s eighth-richest person with a fortune valued at $149 billion, according to Bloomberg.AFP via Getty Images
“My career has been based on academic and intellectual credibility, and I was being shamed internationally for being a cheater,” Shanahan told People last year.
“To be known because of a sexual act is one of the most humiliating things . . . it was utterly debilitating.”
Two weeks after the alleged affair, Brin and Shanahan separated. Months later, he filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.”
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The divorce proceedings between Brin, the eighth-richest man in the world with a net worth valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $148 billion, and Shanahan dragged on for 18th months, during which she threatened to harm herself, according to the Times.
Brin and Shanahan met at a yoga festival in July 2014 — just weeks before she would eventually marry her first husband, tech investor Jeremy Kranz.
Several days after Kranz and Shanahan wed in August 2014, he discovered text messages between his new wife and Brin on her phone, according to the Times.
5Shanahan was recently picked by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr as his running mate in his long-shot bid for the White House.Jay Janner / American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK
Kranz then sought to annul the marriage just 27 days after the wedding. When listing the reason for the annulment, Kranz had planned to allege fraud, but Shanahan was fearful that a fraud claim would jeopardize her ability to practice law, the newspaper reported.
Shanahan even threatened to harm herself while negotiating with Kranz, according to the Times.
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So Krazn agreed to drop the annulment claim and settle for a divorce that required Shanahan to pay $20,000 in partial wedding costs and to scrub him from her social media accounts.
The Post has sought comment from Shanahan, Brin, Musk and Kranz.