A New York Times investigation into the background of Nicole Shanahan, the Oakland-reared running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., offers a less-than-flattering portrait of the once little-known lawyer, vaccine skeptic and self-described “Silicon Valley princess,” who would like to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Among other things, the New York Times echoes a Wall Street Journal report that alleges that Shanahan had a sexual enounter with Elon Musk, the long-time friend of her then-husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin. While Shanahan and Musk have previously denied an affair, The Times reported that Shanahan told Brin, as well as friends, family and advisers, that she had sex with Musk at a private party in Miami in December 2021.
FILE – Elon Musk arrives at an event in Los Angeles, April 13, 2024. Shares of Tesla stock rallied Monday, April 29, 2024, after Musk, the electric vehicle maker’s CEO, paid a surprise visit to Beijing over the weekend and reportedly won tentative approval for its driving software. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
The party was hosted by Musk’s brother, Kimball Musk, in connection with the Art Basel festival. The Tesla CEO and Shanahan took ketamine, a popular party drug that is legal with a prescription, The Times reported, citing four people briefed on the event and documents related to it. They then “disappeared together for several hours,” The Times said.
Two weeks after the party, Shanahan and Brin separated, and he filed for divorce after five years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences,” The Times reported, quoting court documents.
But this wasn’t the first time Shanahan allegedly strayed in a relationship, with The Times reporting that she began an affair with Brin in 2014, weeks before she was due to marry Jeremy Kranz, a San Francisco tech investor.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife Cheryl Hines share the stage with his just-announced running mate Nicole Shanahan and her partner Jacob Strumwasser at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Shanahan and Brin met at a yoga festival at Lake Tahoe in July 2014, The Times reported. Several weeks later, she married Kranz, but he soon discovered her relationship with Brin after seeing texts between her and Brin on her phone, The Times said.
Twenty-seven days after wedding, Kranz filed for annulment, citing fraud, The Times reported, citing court records. But he agreed to end their marriage in a divorce and leave out the fraud claim, after Shanahan threatened to harm herself, The Times said.
Shanahan and Brin married in 2014, and he became her “entryway to the tech industry’s upper echelons,” The Times reported. The couple traveled the world, took trips on Brin’s yachts and enjoyed staying at their various properties in Los Altos, Lake Tahoe, Montana and Malibu. Shanahan also launched her career as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, with the goal of becoming a philanthropist like MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Life among the global elite also meant attending and hosting fabulous parties — and partaking of recreational drugs, including ketamine, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms, The Times said, citing documents and accounts by eight people.
After Shanahan’s marriage to Brin became strained during 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, she began going out more without him in 2021. At one party in Miami, Shanahan “was so intoxicated by drugs and alcohol that she required an IV infusion,” The Times reported.
Shanahan also hosted a Studio 54-themed birthday party for herself at a New York City club. One of her guests was Musk.
When the Wall Street Journal reported on Shanahan’s alleged sexual encounter with Musk at the Miami party, she and Musk denied an affair. Shanahan also doubled down on the denial in an interview she gave to People magazine in 2023.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 03: (L-R) Nicole Shanahan and Sergey Brin attend the 2020 Breakthrough Prize Red Carpet at NASA Ames Research Center on November 03, 2019 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize )
Shanahan described Musk as a friend and said she had sought his advice on how to deal with her young daughters’s autism diagnosis. While hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2021, Musk revealed he has Asperger’s Syndrome and has subsequently spoken about how the diagnosis has impacted his life.
WIth People, Shanahan expressed dismay at accusations that she was a “gold digger,” labeling them sexist, even though her divorce settlement with Brin helped her amass a $1 billion fortune.
“My career has been based on academic and intellectual credibility, and I was being shamed internationally for being a cheater,” Shanahan told People. “To be known because of a sexual act is one of the most humiliating things . . . it was utterly debilitating.”