The Truth About Elon Musk's Relationship With Amber Heard

Elon Musk does not seem to have the best luck when it comes to love; he's been divorced three times, and has five sons from his first marriage, according to Insider. Things seemed to be looking up for the Tesla CEO, as he welcomed a one-year-old son with musician Grimes in 2020.

Musk and Grimes made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala in May 2018, and Page Six reported the couple was "quietly dating" at the time. It's no surprise they met online due to a joke about artificial intelligence. "Elon was researching the idea of joking about Rococo Basilisk, and when he saw Grimes had already joked about it, he reached out to her," a source told the outlet. "Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI." The couple split in 2021, but reconciled for a short time as they welcomed a baby girl through surrogacy. Grimes shared the news with Vanity Fair, but by the time the article was published, the musician tweeted to inform her following that she and Musk had called it quits again.

Even with the focus of Musk's on-and-off dynamic with Grimes, we can't forget about his short-lived relationship with Amber Heard. The romance was brief, and aside from a couple of photos, not much evidence of the union remains today. So what happened? 

Elon Musk started dating Amber Heard in 2016, according to Insider. Due to busy schedules, the pair pulled the plug on their relationship just one year later. "Having read recent articles about our relationship, we would like to speak for ourselves. The distance has been really tough on our relationship, because we haven't been able to see each other much. All relationships have their ups and downs, of course," the statement read, per People. "However, we would like to state directly that we have the utmost respect for one another, and it would be troubling if anyone had the impression that we thought otherwise."

Musk opened up to Rolling Stone (via Refinery29) about the breakup in 2017, and it seems he took it hard. "I just broke up with my girlfriend," he said. "I was really in love, and it hurt bad ... Well, she broke up with me more than I broke up with her, I think." It took a lot for the tech mogul to regain confidence at the Model 3 event, where he was "morbid." "I had to psych myself up: drink a couple of Red Bulls, hang out with positive people and then, like, tell myself: 'I have all these people depending on me. All right, do it!'" he said.

Heard did not seem to be shedding any tears about the split, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, "I'm in a relationship with me."

When Amber Heard and Elon Musk first crossed paths, the timing wasn't exactly right. Heard was still married to Johnny Depp, but that did not stop the Tesla CEO from wanting to meet her. The two were both in Robert Rodriguez's "Machete Kills" from 2013 — Heard with a featured role and Musk in a brief cameo — but they didn't share any scenes together. According to a source for The Hollywood Reporter, Musk asked around to help link them up. He explained having no interest in a date, as he was aware of her relationship with Depp at the time, but supposedly wrote in an email, "Amber just seems like an interesting person to meet." The two then became friends.

With Heard and Depp's split in 2016, as well as Musk's own divorce from Talulah Riley the same year, a new relationship began. The "Aquaman" actor shared a photo on Instagram with her new beau out to dinner — Musk sporting a red lipstick mark on his cheek. "When the time was right and they were both single last year, he started pursuing her romantically," a source told People when Heard and Musk were officially dating. They continued, "She was playing hard to get for a while, which made him even more interested."

Their breakup in 2017 due to busy schedules wasn't quite the end for Heard and Musk. They briefly got back together over the holiday season in early 2018, per Page Six, but the relationship simply ran its course.

Even though Elon Musk maintains that his relationship with Amber Heard began after she was officially split from Johnny Depp, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor believes otherwise. In the defamation lawsuit Depp filed in 2018, per E! News, it was stated that "Unbeknownst to Mr. Depp, no later than one month after his marriage to Ms. Heard, she was spending time in a new relationship with Tesla and Space X founder, Elon Musk."

The statement makes specific reference to a time when Depp was out of the country for work and Heard told their building staff to give Musk access to the "parking garage and the penthouse elevator 'late at night,'" also noting that the tech mogul left the following morning. In response, Heard's lawyer commented on the general lawsuit rather than addressing specifics of the accusation, saying, "This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp's repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced."

Depp also believes that Heard cheated on him with actor James Franco, per Daily News. The "Aquaman" actor denied allegations under oath of any "illicit relationship" with either Musk or Franco. With the 2022 defamation trial between Depp and Heard, Musk's name has naturally popped up.

The romantic bond between Amber Heard and Elon Musk may not have been as strong as it appeared. During Johnny Depp's defamation trial against Heard, her ex-agent shared a few messages and details from the time. On April 28, Christian Carino — Lady Gaga's ex-fiance — gave a testimony that touched on his former client's time with Musk. Carino said, per Vulture, that Heard was never in love with the Tesla founder and that she was "just filling space."

Carino asked why she was so sad if she didn't have real feelings for Musk, to which Heard expressed frustrations with publicity interfering with her dating life. She stated, "I hate that yet again a man lets me fall on the spikes by myself." Carino's response was, "You could avoid all this if you stopped dating Über-famous people." Despite these private messages blurring how Heard felt in her relationship with Musk, she has publicly praised her former partner.

"Elon and I had a beautiful relationship, and we have a beautiful friendship now, one that was based on our core values," Heard told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. "Intellectual curiosity, ideas and conversation, a shared love for science. We just bonded on a lot of things that speak to who I am on the inside. I have so much respect for him," she explained. The defamation suit is clearly revealing many curious takes on anything surrounding Depp and Heard over the last several years.