# @benzinga on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DI4_9KFoDwD
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/29892065-benzinga-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f4bcf4e56b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-04-26T01:02:11.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Benzinga | News That Moves (@benzinga) — https://gondola.cc/benzinga

## Caption

There are two sides to every love story — but when one side reportedly opens with "I am the alpha in this relationship," it's safe to say the honeymoon phase didn't last long.

Before Elon Musk became the world's wealthiest man and the face of Tesla, SpaceX, and a dozen high-profile controversies, he was a young tech founder with a vision, a McLaren F1, and a brand-new marriage. His first wife, Justine Musk, painted a very different picture of their relationship in a 2010 Marie Claire essay titled "I Was a Starter Wife: Inside America's Messiest Divorce."

In the piece, Justine recounted the moment at their wedding reception when Elon leaned in and said, "I am the alpha in this relationship." At the time, she shrugged it off. But over the course of their marriage, she said the statement proved to be more than just a bold quip.

"Elon's judgment overruled mine, and he was constantly remarking on the ways he found me lacking," she wrote. The dynamic shifted further after Elon sold Zip2 for roughly $300 million in 1999, becoming instantly wealthy. What began as a romance with a "struggling 20-something entrepreneur" quickly evolved into a relationship dominated by vast economic imbalance and rising public scrutiny.

Justine recalled how, two months before their January 2000 wedding, Elon scheduled a meeting with a lawyer. "It's not a prenup," she remembered him saying — but what followed was, in essence, a postnuptial agreement, presented under the guise of corporate necessity. She signed it. "I trusted my husband — why else had I married him?"

She also described the early days of Elon's fortune as surreal. "His wealth seemed abstract and unreal," she wrote, describing how he bought a condo, a million-dollar sports car, and a plane — all while she tried to adjust to their new financial reality. "I made uneasy jokes that he was about to dump me for a supermodel. Instead, he proposed."

Despite the tension that followed, Justine's 2014 TEDx Talk, "Visionaries Are People Who Can See in the Dark," offered a more measured reflection. She acknowledged Elon's intensity, citing his focus and fierce discipline as two key drivers of his success.

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## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Benzinga | News That Moves | @benzinga | https://gondola.cc/benzinga | Brand |
| Jacob Shipley | @okcmayor | https://gondola.cc/okcmayor | Director of Social Media |

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