According to reports, the SpaceX and Tesla owner, Elon Musk, asked a flight attendant for an “erotic massage” then proceeded to touch her inappropriately without her permission. He then gave her over $350,000 to keep her from talking about it.
The report, which originally came from the Insider, cites a close friend of the flight attendant who claims that the incident occurred in 2016, with the two parties coming to an agreement over the final amount two years later (2018). The avian services employee was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement, legally binding her from revealing any information regarding Musk’s questionable behaviour.
According to her friend, who was not bound by any such document and was told about what had happened much before any papers were signed, Musk asked to be given a full body massage in his private room during one of his private flights to London. The alleged victim, who was part of the crew, fulfilled the SpaceX owner’s request. This wasn’t considered strange, based on the report, as the company had already asked the employee to get a masseuse license – with her own money.
But that’s when things started to get iffy. During the massage, Musk began asking her to “do more”, revealing himself to the attendant and promising to buy her a small horse if she did, while putting his hands on her thigh.
“And he basically tried to bribe her to perform some sort of sexual favour,” said the friend, adding that the attendant turned down the billionaire’s advances. After that, her shifts at SpaceX were reduced significantly.
The employee, feeling as though she was being punished for her refusal to accept Musk’s proposition, filed a complaint to the company’s HR department claiming that her entire career had been put at risk due to the incident.
The friend then goes on to say that the complaint was brought to a mediator, with the company offering to give the attendant over $350,000 as compensation pay in exchange for her silence.
According to the Insider’s report, this friend of the former SpaceX flight attendant decided to reveal the details of this incident without first consulting with the alleged victim or getting her approval. The flight attendant herself has refused to comment.
However, the other person involved in the incident, Elon Musk, did have something to say about it. The billionaire told the Insider that: “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,” adding that there’s “a lot more to this story.”
Previously, Musk had posted a tweet which could easily be linked to the publication of this story, in which he claimed that “political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months.”
