Years ago, SpaceX founder Elon Musk allegedly exposed himself to a SpaceX flight attendant before offering her a strange quid pro quo: he would give her a horse if she would give him an erotic massage. The company then reportedly paid the woman $250,000 to settle a 2018 sexual misconduct claim against Musk.
In 2022, Musk denied the accusation and told Business insiderin which the allegation was first reported: “If I were inclined to participate in sexual harassment, it is unlikely that this is the first time in my entire 30-year career that this has come to light.”
Now, two years later, more allegations have emerged about Musk’s behavior in his relationships.
The billionaire had relationships with a number of female employees at SpaceX and solicited sexual favors from others, according to a new newspaper Wall Street Journal report, based on interviews with more than 48 sources, as well as emails, texts and data.
Musk’s alleged string of sexual encounters, or the requested ones, with women who worked for him are nothing short of salacious.
Musk, the world’s second-richest person, dated a summer intern before giving her a role on his executive staff years later. He asked another woman to have his children and had a month-long sexual relationship with a woman under his direct supervision in 2014. log reported.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, pushed back on the Magazine report, which told the newspaper that reporting was filled with “falsehoods, mischaracterizations and revisionist history” that “paint a completely misleading story.”
She added: “Elon is one of the best people I know.”
The company investigates all sexual harassment complaints and acts accordingly, Shotwell told the outlet.
The independent has emailed SpaceX for comment.
Musk, who has 11 children, has reportedly asked a female employee to have his babies more than once log reported. She declined his offer, but stayed in her role. However, Musk apparently didn’t make it easy for her to stay; refused to give her a raise and complained about her work, the log wrote. The woman eventually left the company in 2013 with an exit package of cash and stock worth more than $1 million, the outlet reported.
Musk is also said to have had a sexual relationship in early 2010 with a student who was doing a summer internship at SpaceX. log reported. The technical intern connected with the founder after pitching ideas to improve the company. According to the report, he was more than twenty years older than her.
A year after her internship, the billionaire allegedly flew her to Sicily. Her travels reportedly included a first-class trip to London, followed by a private jet to Italy, where he attended a Google-sponsored conference. The relationship ended some time after the international meeting.
But years later, in 2017, Musk contacted the ex-intern and offered her a position on his executive staff. She took the job, the log wrote, and moved from New York to California.
Even though their relationship had ended, Musk invited her for drinks after she arrived in California. There, he allegedly hit the former intern and touched her breast.
The outlet received affidavits signed by the woman. In it, she said she had no relationship with Musk while she worked at SpaceX from 2017 to 2019. She wrote: “Elon tried to rekindle our relationship before my employment, and I turned down the advance. Although there was some initial awkwardness, after rejection it was nothing major.”
However, her conversations with friends seemed to tell a different story. The outlet spoke with the former intern’s friends, who recalled her saying she didn’t enjoy her time at SpaceX; she sometimes hid in the company bathroom; that she suffered from “imposter syndrome”; and that she had difficulty getting her colleagues to take her ideas seriously.
The former intern regularly traveled to the billionaire’s home and received many text messages from the Musks, friends told the outlet. In one text conversation, seen by the logMusk repeatedly asked the woman to come over.
When she didn’t respond, he texted three times in a row before reportedly writing, “Probably best if we don’t see each other.” The next morning, text messages showed the woman apologizing for not contacting him because she had been sleeping.
Her lawyers told the newspaper log that the “breakup” part of Musk’s text “did not refer to a romantic relationship.”
But a friend of the woman told her log that she suffers from mild social anxiety “due to imposter syndrome” which “certainly makes this job more difficult… And that is certainly exacerbated by Elon’s behavior.”
Ultimately, the former intern requested to leave Musk’s executive team and move to another role. She told friends that her interactions with the founder had become awkward. She left the company in 2019, the outlet reported.