Elon Musk has denied having an affair with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after photos of them together sparked a social media meltdown when he referred to the lawmaker as “beautiful”.
Images shared online showed the Tesla founder and the Italian prime minister looking into each other’s eyes at the Global Citizen Awards in New York City on Monday, as Musk presented Meloni with the titular award.
“Find someone who looks at you the same way Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni looks at Elon Musk,” wrote one X user, sharing a photo of Musk tapping Meloni on the shoulder.
“You can’t have mELONi without ELON,” added another.
He The New York Post even went so far as to as if to describe the event as a “public love affair” between the richest man in the world and Italy’s first female prime minister.
Images shared online showed the Tesla founder and the Italian prime minister looking into each other’s eyes at the Global Citizen Awards in New York City on Monday.
Photos from the event created a stir on social media, sparking speculation about their relationship.
But when the photos began circulating on his social media platform, Musk denied having any romantic relations with Meloni at the gala event.
“I was there with my mother. There is no romantic relationship with Prime Minister Meloni,” Musk said. wrote in X in response to a post of a photo showing them staring into each other’s eyes at a banquet table, which was jokingly captioned: “We all know what happened next.”
Musk and Meloni have met several times before, with the Italian prime minister hosting the billionaire at his official residence in Rome in June last year.
He then returned to the country in December, when he spoke at a political festival organised by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party.
They have previously discussed their shared interest in the West’s declining birth rates and the positive potential of AI. according to the Telegraph.
Meloni, who split from her long-term partner Andrea Giambruno after he made lewd comments on Italian television in 2023, even asked Musk to present her with the Atlantic Council think tank’s Global Citizen Award.
Meloni had requested that Musk present him with the Global Citizen Award at the ceremony in New York City on Monday night.
In brief remarks before presenting the award, Musk said Meloni was “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside.”
“You can’t always say the same about politicians,” he joked, then referred to her as “authentic, honest and thoughtful.”
The right-wing Italian leader responded by calling the American businessman a “valuable genius” before launching into her vision of Western conservatism.
“I don’t know if nationalism is the right word because it often brings to mind doctrines of aggression or authoritarianism,” he told the crowd of more than 600 at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom.
“However, I know that we should not be ashamed of using and defending words and concepts like ‘nation’ and ‘patriotism.'”
Meloni went on to call patriotism “the best response to declinism” while challenging perceptions of the “inevitable decline of the West.”
Musk was seen nodding throughout her speech and stood up to applaud her when she finished.