Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he was not having an affair with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
He was replying to a joke after their mutual praise at a black-tie event in New York this week drew headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
Photographs of the two lit up social media after Musk presented Meloni with the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council think tank on Monday, held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.The New York Post called it a “public love-in” between the world’s richest man and the first female Italian prime minister.
The full speech by Giorgia Meloni 🇮🇹 in New York
Perhaps the best accent of any Italian prime minister since the Republic existspic.twitter.com/CDT0Qj9PQK
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) September 24, 2024
“I was there with my Mom. There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post of a photo of the two of them gazing fondly into each other’s eyes at a banquet table, which had the jokey caption “we all know what happened next”.
In a speech before handing over the award, Musk said Meloni was “someone who is even more beautiful inside than outside”.
“Giorgia Meloni is someone that I admire that has done an incredible job as the Prime Minister of Italy. Italy is experiencing a record economic growth, record low unemployment. She’s authentic, honest and truthful,” he said.
“Someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than She is on the outside.”
-Elon Musk to Giorgia Meloni.❤️🇮🇹🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7iYfY1FWMG
— SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) September 24, 2024
The Italian right-wing leader replied that the U.S. entrepreneur was a “precious genius”.
Meloni, who split from her long-time partner in 2023, requested that Musk be the person to hand her the award, while the tech businessman flew to Italy twice last year to meet the Italian leader — in June and December.
Besides Meloni, others who won the award this year include Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana; Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, and Miky Lee, Vice Chairwoman, CJ Group.
(REUTERS)
