Elon Musk denies romantic relationship with Giorgia Meloni after Italian PM calls him ‘precious genius’

Elon Musk has denied that he’s in a relationship with Giorgia Meloni after the two were pictured in close conversation at the Atlantic Council’s gala dinner on Monday (September 23).

The 53-year-old billionaire took to X/Twitter (which he owns) the following day to address his friendship with the Italian Prime Minister.

“I was there with my Mom,” he wrote. “There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni.”

Musk presented Meloni with a Global Citizens Award at the black-tie event, which is part of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders.

“[Meloni is] someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside,” Musk said in his speech, according to Politico, going on to call her “authentic, honest and thoughtful.”

“That can’t always be said about politicians,” he added, prompting a laugh from the crowd.

In response, Meloni praised the Tesla CEO’s “precious genius.”

The two have gotten together several times throughout the last year, with Musk speaking at Meloni’s Christmas Party for young conservatives organized by the Brothers of Italy party in December 2023. Before the event, he also met Meloni in Italy to discuss the country’s low birth rate, artificial intelligence (AI), and the EU.

Before the dinner, Meloni spoke about receiving the Global Citizens Award, explaining why Musk was chosen to deliver the honor. According to La Voce di New York, it was decided “months ago” that he would give this award, with the move “having nothing to do with the American election campaign.”

“The attempt to deploy Italy in the American campaign is, I believe, above all an Italian attempt, but it doesn’t seem particularly intelligent to me,” she told journalists in New York before her speech at the dinner.

She added: “I have already answered and explained a thousand times that I am not a supporter of foreign interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, I am not among those leaders who think they have the right to tell a citizen who lives in another nation what is best for his future.”

Leading up to the 2024 US presidential election, Musk has made it clear that he’ll be voting for Republican nominee Donald Trump. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” the father of 12 wrote on X in July, just moments after the former president was targeted in an assassination attempt.

Trump was 15 minutes into giving a speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer when shots rang out and the former president was seen clutching his ear, before ducking below the podium.

“The martyr lived,” Musk wrote in a later post, citing a reported debate between conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman.

Musk’s clarifications about his friendship with Meloni also come one year after she publicly announced her separation from her partner of 10 years, Andrea Giambruno. At the time, she said that their paths had diverged “for some time.” The former couple also share a seven-year-old daughter, Ginevra.