Musk, the boss of and lead investor in the electric-car startup, was previously the cofounder of PayPal, a payments startup bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. So one would assume he's rolling in it. And cash for silence is the usual barter when the newly wealthy part ways with their first wives. But Justine Musk isn't taking that route. After reading a profile of Elon's current love interest, 23-year-old British actress Talulah Riley, who is 13 years her junior, she piped up:

When you are living part of your life in the public eye anyway — when you blog, when your divorce has been kicked out there for public consumption — when does this whole idea of "taking the high road" segue into this idea of being silent, silenced, even as someone appropriates your words to spin out a certain version of events?

Justine now disputes the notion, previously advanced by Elon, that the two were racing to the courthouse to file divorce papers. She says that she and her husband had completed all of three sessions of marital counseling when Elon gave her an "ultimatum":

"Either we fix [the marriage] today, or I will divorce you tomorrow."

The next morning, Justine found that her credit card had been cut off and thereby learned that he had gone ahead and filed for divorce. This is not the picture she painted last year of an amicable, mutual split.

The unraveling of the Musks' marriage appears to have happened in the space of a few short weeks in July. Elon met Talulah Riley, the star of St. Trinian's, in London on July 3. On July 18, Justine wrote about being "in the midst of some major drama." A week later, Riley escorted Elon to the opening of Tesla's auto showroom in Menlo Park. And soon afterwards, he proposed to her, Riley told the Daily Mail. A couple of weeks later, Justine wrote a biting blog entry about older men who date younger women:

I was thinking about the time a male friend, who is my age (mid thirties), and I had a bit of a spat in the driveway outside his lush hillside home. When I refused to buy into his argument and turned to go inside the house, I heard him say scornfully, "Yeah, that's it, go hang with the twenty year olds."

I thought: Dude, I'm not the one who's dating them.

Not that there aren't some mature early twentysomethings out there capable of dating anybody — just that his comment revealed more about men like him than any group of women. To wit: women that young are like children, and quality interaction happens between myself and fellow successful male peers. And yet that pool of "children" is where these same men go again and again to fish out the new girlfriend. Thus: my girlfriend is a child, but that's okay, because quality interaction happens elsewhere.

The next month, Justine went public with news of her divorce. She subsequently wrote:

We had a good run. We married young, took it as far as we could and now it is over. That's about all I can say for now, other than that it was a very sad and very necessary decision.

So why is she breaking her silence now? It could be her frustration with seeing her own words used to portray Elon as an honorable man who found a new love as his old one foundered. But it could also be that she has literally nothing to lose.

Acquaintances have been saying for some time that Elon is essentially broke, save for his illiquid stakes in Tesla Motors and SpaceX, his rocket-ship startup. We hear that he had to liquidate investments at a loss so he could participate in Tesla's most recent round of funding, and that he's couch-surfing with friends on his frequent trips from Los Angeles, where he lives, to Silicon Valley, where Tesla is based.

One hopes Riley and Musk really did bond over a mutual love of astrophysics.

(Photo of Musk and Riley via Daily Mail)

Huang is auctioning off the rights to a tell-all book between now and May 30, 2009. Musk and Huang dated in 2003, according to Huang's website, Roomsofhorror.com. At that time, Musk was still married to his wife Justine, whom he is divorcing.

Huang also claims to have dated John Tu, the CEO of memory-chip maker Kingston Technology. Here's Huang's bio:

Actress, model, writer, and film producer Lily wrote two books about her true horrifying experiences while she was dating Elon Musk -founder of Paypal, and John Tu - President of Kingston technology, at her old, gloomy, dark, cold and eerily quiet apartment. She believes it was haunted. In her books, she wrote how inexplicable forces of nature arose in their glamorous and loving relationships. Read how supernatural powers can and do affect our daily lives and love. If you want to discover and experience what happened in her relationships and the frightening events in her apartment, please read these scary books… if you dare!

Currently, she is producing a horror movie entitled "Rooms Of Horror".

And here's her brief summary of her relationship with Musk:

Lily dated with Elon Musk in 2003. Lily experienced much more horrifying events while she was dating Elon at her old, gloomy, dark and eerily quiet apartment. She has just finished this book, entitled "ASIAN BEAUTY-HOUSE OF HORROR". It is another scary book. It is available to buy at auction. Minimum bid is $ 3 Million US dollars, of course, the highest bidder will acquire all the rights to this book.

This is, as far as we can determine, not a complete hoax. Huang actually exists, according to the woman she hired to create the website. The domain was registered on February 19. Metadata in the site's pages say it was created by superbatcat.com, the website of Southern California Web designer Kieu Le. According to Le, Huang hired her via a Craigslist ad and met her in person. Le says the person she met resembles the photographs of "Asian Beauty Lily" that Huang provided for the Roomsofhorror.com website.

So what's going on here? Here are some theories:

• Huang actually did carry on relationships with Musk (left, top) and Tu (left, bottom), and is hoping her ex-lovers will buy her silence by paying for "rights" to her "books" and "movie."
• Perhaps she really is writing fascinating tales of the paranormal and technological.
• Or she's just crazy and made the whole thing up.

Here's Huang's Rooms of Horror trailer:

Lily has another video on YouTube en deshabille.

Do the geographical math. Until Justine threw him out this summer, the couple lived in a Bel Air mansion with their five children. Los Angeles is clearly a better locale for Justine to pursue her writing career. Tesla is based in the Bay Area. Word swept the Tesla office of a pending divorce after Elon showed up to the opening of Tesla's Menlo Park showroom with a "twentysomething actress," one attendee said. How he managed to pursue an affair while meddling in the affairs of Tesla and his other company, space-exploration startup SpaceX can only speak to Musk's off-the-charts time-management skills.

His decision to fire Tesla's CEO and take over the job himself just means more time away from his family. Only Elon and Justine know all the reasons why they are divorcing. And which came first — did Elon decide to throw himself into his work after realizing his marriage was a failure, or did his obstinate workaholism jeopardize his marriage?

Either way, it beggars belief to think the divorce wasn't a factor in the uproar at Tesla. That will be no comfort to the employees who will soon be laid off by a CEO going through a midlife crisis.