Talulah Riley recalls whirlwind romance with 'shy' ex-husband Elon Musk
Talulah Riley has given an insight into her whirlwind early romance with ex-husband Elon Musk, who she went on to marry twice.
The actress, 36, revealed how she first met the billionaire entrepreneur, 50, by chance at London nightclub Whisky Mist in 2008, and ended up chatting to him about cars and rockets.
Recalling her first impressions of the businessman – who is poised to buy Twitter – she told The Sunday Times' Style magazine: "Very diffident, very shy, quite awkward, sweet."
At the time she was a 22-year-old actress who was on the rise after starring in the film St Trinians, while he was 37, recently split from his first wife and had just made $176 million from the sale of PayPal to eBay.
After meeting the next morning for breakfast, they spent the next 10 days together – including her flying out to see him in Los Angeles – before he asked her to marry him.
Riley said: "I think my father proposed to my mother at the end of their first date, so I think I just assumed that was how it was done.
"It seemed perfectly logical to me at the time that if someone was going to come in and want to marry me, they would want to marry me immediately."
The couple were first wed from 2010 to 2012, before divorcing and marrying again from 2013 to 2016.
Of their relationship now, Riley noted that she has "incredible fondness" for their "journey" together.
She added: “I love Elon fiercely and always will, not necessarily in an intense, romantic way but in a broad ‘he’s my family’ way.”
Musk, who has five sons with his first wife, recently had a son and daughter with the singer Grimes, 34.
Riley, who is starring in upcoming TV drama Pistols, is dating actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster, 32.
Watch: Longstanding celebrity relationships
