27. Talulah

In July 2008, amidst pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al tur­moil, Elon Musk trav­eled to Lon­don to speak at the Roy­al Aero­nau­ti­cal Soci­ety. Fol­low­ing recent fail­ures with SpaceX rock­ets and chal­lenges with­in Tes­la amid a brew­ing glob­al eco­nom­ic cri­sis, Musk was also nav­i­gat­ing a divorce. Despite these pres­sures, Musk deliv­ered a speech cham­pi­oning com­mer­cial space explo­ration’s inno­va­tion over gov­ern­men­tal efforts and high­light­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of such ven­tures for plan­e­tary col­o­niza­tion. His vis­it also includ­ed a meet­ing with the CEO of Aston Mar­tin, who expressed skep­ti­cism about elec­tric vehi­cles and cli­mate change con­cerns.

The fol­low­ing day, suf­fer­ing from stress-induced stom­ach pains, Musk was tak­en to a clin­ic by his friend, Bill Lee. After being cleared of seri­ous health con­cerns, Lee arranged for them to unwind at Whisky Mist, a pop­u­lar night­club. There, Musk and actress Talu­lah Riley were intro­duced by mutu­al friends. Riley, a ris­ing actress known for her role in “Pride and Prej­u­dice,” was ini­tial­ly unaware of Musk’s iden­ti­ty as the man behind the rock­ets he dis­cussed. Musk’s awk­ward yet earnest approach led to him ask­ing for her phone num­ber, mark­ing the begin­ning of their con­nec­tion.

Despite ini­tial mis­giv­ings due to mis­in­for­ma­tion about Musk’s mar­i­tal sta­tus, Riley was reas­sured by friends that he was indeed sin­gle. Their swift­ly devel­op­ing rela­tion­ship saw them spend­ing a con­sid­er­able amount of time togeth­er, enjoy­ing mul­ti­ple meals and even shop­ping for Musk’s chil­dren. Riley’s ini­tial impres­sion of Musk as shy and awk­ward shift­ed as she got to know him, lay­ing the foun­da­tion for their future togeth­er. This encounter not only offered Musk a reprieve from his pro­fes­sion­al chal­lenges but also sig­naled the start of a sig­nif­i­cant per­son­al rela­tion­ship with Riley.