AP
Talulah Riley (left) and Elon Musk (right).
Musk's breakups have been in the spotlight - the first time he divorced Riley in 2012 he tweeted it publicly.
Before that, his divorce from his first wife, Justine Musk, caused such widespread interest that he wrote a lengthy statement to set the record straight.
But a story that's not quite as publicized is how Musk met his recently estranged wife, Talulah Riley, which Ashlee Vance details in his book "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future."
After Musk initially filed for divorce from Justine in June 2008, he fell into a slump, as Vance writes in his book. Hoping to lift his spirits, Musk's friend and SpaceX investor Bill Lee convinced him to accompany him on a trip to London that July.
The trip started out poorly - when Musk visited Aston Martin to see a tour of its factory, the CEO treated Musk "like an amateur car builder," Vance writes. Then Musk suffered from severe stomach pains that raised worries of appendicitis (which it wasn't).
Lee eventually convinced Musk to join him on a night out at a bar called Whisky Mist in Mayfair, an area in West London. It was at this bar that Musk met his second wife, Talulah, who has appeared in films such as "Pride and Prejudice."
A club promoter had invited his friends to come meet them at the bar, and one of those friends happened to be Riley. According to Vance's book, Riley and Musk hit it off immediately.
Here's how Riley recalled what it was like to meet Musk for the first time:
I remember thinking that this guy probably didn't get to talk to young actresses a lot and that he seemed quite nervous. I decided to be really nice to him and give him a nice evening. Little did I know that he'd spoken to a lot of pretty girls in his life.
Musk was fixated on Riley. He showed no interest in talking to the other pretty models that the club promoter tried to introduce him to that night.
"I figured he couldn't be all that bad after that," Riley said, according to the book.