Tech billionaire Elon Musk quickly shot down rumors of a romantic relationship with "beautiful" Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after the pair was spotted looking cozy at an awards reception earlier this week.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, 53, and the conservative politician, 47, became the talk of the town Monday night after they were seen looking deep into each other's eyes at the Atlantic Council's Global Citizen Awards dinner in New York City.
Musk took to his social media platform X on Tuesday to dispel the speculation.
"I was there with my Mom," Musk posted. "There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni."
His post came in response to a post of a viral photo of the two with the caption, "We all know what happened next."
Adding grist to the gossip mill, Musk introduced Meloni on stage at the black-tie event at her request and described her as "even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside."
The father of 12 also described the Italian prime minister as "authentic, honest and thoughtful," according to the New York Post.
"That can't always be said about politicians," Musk joked to the crowd of 700.
Meloni then hugged Musk and called him a "precious genius" before giving a 15-minute speech that reportedly defended nationalism and challenged the idea of the "inevitable decline of the West."
When she finished, Musk stood to applaud her.
According to the Post, Meloni and Musk were spotted deep in conversation at the event, where they were seated next to each other, with a video clip posted on X showing Meloni gesturing while Musk nodded along as she spoke.
Meloni was elected as Italy's first female prime minister in 2022 and ended her 10-year relationship with boyfriend Andrea Giambruno in October 2023 after an audio recording surfaced of him asking a woman if she was interested in taking part in a foursome.
In an X post at the time, Meloni revealed that her relationship with Giambruno had "diverged for some time" before she broke things off.
The Telegraph reported that Musk and Meloni have met several times before, with the tech entrepreneur flying out to her official residence in Rome last June and again in December to speak at a political festival hosted by Meloni's party.