Chapter 56: Family Life: 2020

In July 2008, amid personal and professional crises, Musk meets actress Talulah Riley at a London nightclub and, after an intensely compressed courtship of approximately two weeks, proposes to her. Despite initial skepticism from her family, Riley accepts, and both agree to delay the wedding by a couple of years on the advice of Musk's brother Kimbal.

Musk travels to London in July 2008 to deliver a speech to the Royal Aeronautical Society defending commercial space ventures at a precarious moment: SpaceX has experienced two failed launches, Tesla's production is hemorrhaging cash, and his divorce from Justine jeopardizes his stock control. While in London, he suffers stomach pains from stress; his friend Bill Lee arranges for him to unwind at the nightclub Whisky Mist, where he is introduced to twenty-two-year-old actress Talulah Riley. Riley, who has appeared in Pride and Prejudice and other film roles, finds Musk shy and awkward but is charmed by him. Over three days they spend nearly every meal together and visit Hamleys toy store to purchase gifts for his five children. At the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he proposes without a ring; they shake hands on the engagement and swim together in the rooftop pool. Riley's initial concern about Musk's marital status is resolved when she learns his marriage to Justine has ended. Her parents meet Musk, who asks her father's permission to marry her, and Musk's mother Maye approves of Riley as warm, funny, and successful. On Kimbal's advice, Musk and Riley agree to postpone the wedding for two years.