Elon Musk once suffered a mental breakdown amid growing concerns that his reputation was becoming tarnished while running Twitter, writer Ben Mezrich claims.
“He got to a point where he locked himself in his office, was so upset that the Twitter employees were considering calling in a wellness check by the San Francisco police because they thought he was going to self-harm,” the “Breaking Twitter” author alleged on CNBC Tuesday.
“I think he truly cares about his reputation.”
Mezrich, 54, claimed Musk, 52, is a much different person than who he was prior to purchasing the impactful social media platform in 2022.
“Twitter broke Elon Musk,” the nonfiction writer said. “Not only did he destroy this sort of global town hall, but he destroyed himself in the process.”
Mezrich attributed Musk’s alleged mental health decline to a series of negative incidents that took place last year.
The tech mogul was booed at Dave Chapelle’s show in San Francisco last December.
The comedian, 50, told Musk at the time, “You weren’t expecting this, were ya?” before joking, “It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience.”
The SpaceX founder later took to Twitter to remark, “Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life.”
He added sarcastically, “It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists … but nahhh.”
Mezrich claimed on CNBC that Musk was “shocked” by the audience’s reaction, noting, “This never happened to Elon before, and this spiral started.”
The author also claimed that the Tesla CEO was affected by his son being attacked by a “crazy stalker” the same month as the comedy show.
In December 2022, an unidentified man wearing a black hood and a mask allegedly tailed a car carrying Musk’s then-2-year-old son and “climbed” atop the vehicle in Los Angeles.
The masked man later identified himself as an Uber driver named Brandon Collado, who tweeted at Musk, “You have connections to me and have stalked me and my family for over a year.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that the father of 11 kids allegedly microdoses ketamine to treat depression.
In 2017, Musk — who has Asperger’s syndrome — opened up about his mental health, sharing that he may also suffer from bipolar disorder.
“The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don’t think people want to hear about the last two,” he tweeted at the time.
“I’m sure there are better answers than what I do, which is just take the pain and make sure you really care about what you’re doing.”
Pvnew has reached out to Musk’s reps for comment on Mezrich’s claims but did not hear back.
