Elon Musk has commented on rumors of an affair with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which he was suspected of after joint photos

Billionaire Elon Musk has addressed rumours that he is having an affair with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after photos of them together sparked a furious backlash on social media.

Photos posted online show the Tesla founder and the Italian prime minister gazing into each other's eyes at the Global Citizen Awards ceremony in New York on Monday, as Musk, 53, presented Meloni, 47, with an award.

"Find someone who looks at you the way Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni looks at Elon Musk," one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter), alongside a photo of Musk touching Meloni's shoulder. "We all know what happened next," wrote another. The New York Post fueled the speculation, calling it a "public love affair" between the world's richest man and Italy's first female prime minister.

But as soon as the photos began to spread on social media, Musk wrote that he had no romantic relationship with Meloni: "I was there with my mother. I have no romantic relationship with Ms. Meloni."

Musk and Meloni have met several times before: last June, the Italian prime minister hosted the billionaire at her official residence in Rome. In December, he returned to the country and spoke at a political festival organized by Meloni's far-right party, Brothers of Italy. According to the Telegraph, they discussed their shared interest in the declining birth rate in the West and the positive potential of artificial intelligence.

Meloni, who split from her longtime partner Andrea Giambruno after he made lewd comments on Italian television in 2023, even asked Musk to present her with the Atlantic Council's Global Citizen Award. In his brief remarks before accepting the award, Musk said Meloni was "a person who is even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside, which is not always the case with politicians" and called her "genuine, honest, and thoughtful."

It should be noted that Elon Musk was married to singer Grimes, he previously dated actress Amber Heard (after she went through a scandalous divorce from Johnny Depp), he was also credited with an affair with actress Cameron Diaz. In addition, he was married twice more - his first wife was Justine Wilson, and his second - Talulah Riley.