Chapter 80: Robotaxi: Tesla, 2022

This chapter chronicles Elon Musk's tumultuous on-and-off relationship with Talulah Riley, from their 2010 marriage through their second divorce in 2015. Musk's relentless work focus repeatedly undermines their partnership, and a serious back injury sustained at his 2013 birthday party compounds his physical and emotional struggles.

Talulah Riley married Musk in 2010 and relocated to California, abandoning her acting career. She organized elaborate birthday parties for him—including Flying Down to Rio–themed events with wingwalkers and a Japanese steampunk celebration in Tarrytown, New York—but Musk frequently missed these occasions, absorbed in work at Tesla and SpaceX. His devotion to both companies simultaneously made maintaining relationships nearly impossible, as he himself acknowledges. At his 42nd birthday party in June 2013, Musk suffered a severe back injury while attempting to throw a 350-pound sumo wrestler, rupturing his C5-C6 intervertebral disc and causing chronic pain requiring three surgeries. Despite their divorce filing in 2012, Musk and Riley reconciled in court and remarried in a quiet ceremony in July 2013. However, his work obsession persisted. Riley restarted her film career, eventually choosing to return to England for good after her 30th birthday in September 2015, though she promised Musk she would care for him if he ever truly needed her, invoking the Charlotte Brontë reference to Mr. Rochester.