Elon Musk's Ex-Wife, Whom He Was Engaged to Only 2 Weeks After Meeting, Joked He Invited Her to His Hotel Room Just to Watch Rocket Videos

Elon Musk has never done things conventionally, whether it's revolutionizing space travel, running Tesla, or, apparently, dating. His ex-wife, Talulah Riley, revisited the early days of their whirlwind romance, revealing in a BBC documentary that their courtship involved a lot more physics than flirtation.

According to Riley, Musk's idea of a romantic invitation was asking her back to his hotel room – not for the usual reasons but to watch "rocket videos." She initially assumed it was code for something else. But no, Musk, now the world's richest man and the visionary behind SpaceX and Tesla, was being quite literal.

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"I remember one evening he said, ‘Would you like to come back to my hotel room so we can look at rocket videos?' I said, ‘Hmm … OK, yeah,'" Riley recalled with a smile. "And we did get into his hotel room, and he did just show me rocket videos."

This wasn't just an isolated anecdote. Musk's obsession with rockets and space exploration has been a defining part of his life. But that didn't stop Riley from being swept up in his orbit – fast. In a resurfaced CBS interview from 2014, she admitted that their relationship moved at warp speed.

"It all happened very fast," she said. "We were engaged after, I think, sorta two weeks of knowing each other." She was just 22 at the time and described Musk as "very charming" and "definitely the most interesting and eccentric person I have ever met."

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The two tied the knot in 2010, only to divorce in 2012. But Musk, never one to give up easily – on space travel or relationships – convinced her to remarry him in 2013. Riley later explained it felt odd to be together without the formality of marriage. "It was like a habit," she told The Independent in 2022.

That habit, however, didn't last. By 2016, they were divorced for the second time. But Riley has always spoken warmly of Musk, calling him the "perfect ex-husband" and describing their bond as loving and supportive despite the romantic fallout.

She wasn't just a bystander in Musk's world of electric cars and space missions. Riley fully immersed herself in the chaos, even helping care for his five children from his first marriage. She explained she was by Musk's side and it was a "family-wide effort." She also added, "it wasn't like I was stuck in a mansion in Bel Air like a trophy wife." 

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Financially, their divorces came with a hefty price tag. Riley received $4.2 million in their first split and another $16 million after their second, totaling over $20 million. Yet, despite the settlements, they remained close. She even encouraged him to buy Twitter, sending private messages urging him to go through with the deal.

Now remarried to actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Riley still defends Musk against public criticism. In an August 2024 interview with The Times, she was asked why her personal experience of him seemed so different from the often polarizing public image.

"Well, you know more than anyone how what we read in the mainstream media is not necessarily an absolute truth," she said, comparing it to "kayfabe," a wrestling term for a staged performance where everyone buys into the illusion.

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So, is Musk's larger-than-life persona just a performance? Riley didn't give a definitive answer. "I loved/love the guy, so I'm incredibly subjective in my opinion, cannot be unbiased and shouldn't be expected to be either," she admitted. "I'm sure, well … You know what being in love is, right?"

With Musk's relationships being as unpredictable as his business ventures, it's no surprise that his love life continues to fascinate. And in a world where billionaires tend to keep things buttoned up, his approach – whether it's inviting someone to his hotel room to watch rocket videos or rekindling an old romance – is as unconventional as it gets

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