Given the choice, I'd rather stick a fork in my hand than write about my personal life. Unfortunately, it seems that I don't have any other option.P
 
Elon Musk Can't Handle The Truth
 
VentureBeat's Owen Thomas claims Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car startup Tesla Motors and rocket-launcher SpaceX, has discovered he could stretch … Read…
 
Several awful things have been widely reported that are simply false, but a falsehood uncorrected may as well be truth.P
 
I really wish there were not this level of attention directed towards personal matters in the first place, but the legal filings in a California divorce are public information, my ex-wife (Justine) is an extremely prolific blogger, and certain journalists seem to have a creepy fixation on my personal life. Much as one may wish for privacy, in the 21st century it just doesn't exist.P
 
Dangerous ClichésP
 
The final straw that prompted me to write this was an off-the-cuff comment in a recent New York Times article that I "ran off with an actress", suggesting that was the reason for my divorce. Andrew Sorkin, an otherwise excellent journalist, was actually writing an article about the difference between liquid and illiquid wealth. The primary point he was making, was that even if someone has assets that are worth an enormous amount on paper, that doesn't matter if, as was the case with me several months ago, the assets cannot be sold quickly enough to meet an unexpected cash obligation. The article as a whole was fine, but the inaccurate comment on my personal life was quite painful. My ex-wife also contributes frequently to the public literature on the divorce, and recently wrote an article for the Times of London, containing several more inaccuracies that I would like to correct.P
 
Since I was accused of absconding with an actress in one of the biggest newspapers in the world, and moreover was quoted frequently in the article, this was assumed by many to be true. Let me be absolutely clear: it is not. I filed for divorce from Justine (for reasons I should not have to justify or make public) before I met Talulah Riley, the woman who is now my fiancé. The fact of the matter is that Talulah and I lived on opposite sides of the world and hadn't even known of each other's existence before the marriage with Justine ended.P
 
It is worth mentioning that Talulah, as anyone who knows her would attest, is one of the most kind hearted and gentle people in the world. The cliché that has been propagated, of me abandoning a devoted wife to "run off" with a young actress, could not have been more falsely applied.P
 
I would also like it known that Matt Peterson, the president of Global Green and Justine's long-term boyfriend, played no part in my decision to file for divorce. Matt has been a mutual acquaintance of both Justine's and mine for many years, and as readers of her blog are aware, she did not enter a relationship with him until after I had filed for divorce. There was no third party involved in the break-up at all.