Musk says he did not f lash air stewardess and then give her $250,000
I dare ‘liar’ to describe my body, says SpaceX billionaire
ELON Musk last night challenged a flight attendant who alleges he exposed himself to her to prove her claims by revealing hidden details about his body. The world’s richest man denied the accusation and called on the woman to ‘describe one thing that isn’t known by the public’ such as a scar to back up her story. The air stewardess claims Mr Musk propositioned her for sex on a jet in 2016. She alleges he touched her thigh and offered to buy her a horse if she would ‘do more’ in his private cabin. The woman, who was a member of cabin crew for the SpaceX founder’s fleet of corporate jets, refused and reportedly received a $250,000 (€227,000) pay-off. The allegations were reported by US news website Insider, which claimed to have seen documents related to the settlement. Responding to the article, Mr Musk tweeted: ‘I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me “exposed” – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos...) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.’ The reports come after he made a $44billion (€42billion) bid to buy Twitter. While the woman was not able to speak out, a friend who signed a declaration to back up the claim revealed the details. South African-born Mr Musk, 50, who is worth €205billion, allegedly asked the stewardess to come to his room on the Gulfstream G650ER for a ‘full-body massage’.
SpaceX offers in-house massages as a perk for executives.
When the woman arrived, Mr Musk ‘was completely naked except for a sheet covering the lower half of his body’, according to the friend’s declaration.
During the massage, he ‘exposed his genitals’ and then ‘touched her and offered to buy her a horse if she would do more, referring to the performance of sex acts’.
The woman, who rides horses, continued the massage without sexual contact as she was ‘not for sale’. The friend told Insider in an interview that Mr Musk ‘whipped out his penis – it was erect’.
She said: ‘He started propositioning her, he touched her thigh and told her he would buy her a horse. And he basically tried to bribe her to perform some sort of sexual favour.’
The woman claimed her shifts were later cut back and, according to her friend, she felt ‘she was being pushed out’ from SpaceX and ‘punished for refusing to prostitute herself’. In 2018, the woman filed a complaint to SpaceX and asked her friend to prepare her declaration.
The matter was quickly resolved during mediation attended by Mr Musk, it was claimed. They reportedly agreed a $250,000 severance package conditional on the woman promising not to sue and signing a non-disclosure agreement. Her friend said she felt a ‘responsibility to come forward’. She added: ‘There are predators all over the world. But when someone is particularly wealthy and powerful, they literally have systems that are like a machine working for them, to set them up to be able to do whatever they want.’
When Insider contacted Mr Musk for comment, he said: ‘If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light.’
After the article was published, he tweeted: ‘The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook.’
He also wrote: ‘Those wild accusations are utterly untrue.’
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
‘He told her he’d buy her a horse’