whenRobert F. Kennedy Jr.When considering potential running mates for president, hisShortlistThere were originally two well-known people with extraordinary resumes: the NFL quarterback,Frequent conspiracy theoriesAaron Rodgers, and former Minnesota Governor, known asJesse Ventura, the professional wrestler known as “Kinnikuman”.
resultKennedy unexpectedly chose a woman with an unusual and little-known background:Nicole Shanahan.
Shanahan, 38, a former Silicon Valley lawyer who has never held public office and is relatively unknown, was chosen when Kennedy’s campaign needed money to get into the state election after Rogers and Ventura lost the vice presidential race, according to three people familiar with the matter. Money was something Shanahan could provide in abundance.
Three people familiar with Shanahan’s finances said her wealth is more than $1 billion, largely from her merger last year with Google founderSergey BrinBrin’s net worth exceeds$145 billionDuring their five-year marriage, Shanahan partied with Silicon Valley elites and used recreational drugs such as cocaine, ketamine and psychedelic mushrooms, according to eight people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The New York Times. Three of the people said Shanahan separated from Brin in 2021 after having a sexual relationship with Elon Musk.
Those episodes are part of a sophisticated but sometimes chaotic life Ms. Shanahan led in New York, the nation’s tech capital, according to interviews with more than 20 people who knew her or were aware of her behavior, as well as property records, court documents, tax records, emails and other information reviewed by The Times. Many details of her life, including her divorce settlement, have not been reported.

“Status is very important to Nicole, as is how much money you have,” said Daniel Morris, a Puerto Rican photographer who is a friend of Shanahan and her first husband, tech investor Jeremy Kranz.
On the campaign trail, Shanahan portrayed herself as a hard-working former entrepreneur and lawyer, a successful person who once needed food stamps and someone who could heal divisions and unite America. But she omitted and embellished parts of her history, including some of her experiences with Dr. Brin, to make herself more relatable, according to people who know her and documents reviewed by The Times.
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In an interview with The Times in February, Shanahan described herself as a former “Silicon Valley princess.” In response to questions for this article, she texted: “I’m shocked that the New York Times would let you run a story like this.” The Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Shanahan has publicly denied having an affair with Musk.
Musk, his lawyer and a spokesman for Brin did not respond to requests for comment.
Two people familiar with the campaign said Kennedy, who is running as an independent, chose Shanahan without his advisers fully investigating her record or financial resources when she had become a significant contributor to his campaign.
Shanahan has said she shares Kennedy’s skepticism about vaccines. This year, she donated $4 million through the super PAC American Values 2024 to help fund Kennedy’s Super Bowl ads. In March, she gave another $2 million to Kennedy’s campaign. Last week, she saidAnother $8 million.
The duo secured spots on the presidential ballot in the swing state of Michigan, as well as five other states. Kennedy’s campaign said he had enough signatures to get on the ballot in seven more states, which could give him and Shanahan considerable weight in the November election.
Shanahan “is the perfect fit,” Kennedy said when he announced her as his running mate in March. He called her a “fierce, fighting mother” who “overcame every daunting obstacle to achieve the highest aspirations of the American dream.”
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Yoga Festival
On the campaign trail, Shanahan, who grew up in Oakland, California, has said she knows what it’s like to be “unfortunately one step away from disaster.”
She said her father, Sean Shanahan, was unable to hold down a job, was diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia when she was nine, and died in 2014. Shanahan said her family struggled and needed food stamps and government assistance.
The Kennedy campaign’s website shows that Shanahan received an athletic scholarship to attend St. Mary’s Academy High School, a private Catholic school in Berkeley, California. The $24,000-a-year school confirmed that Shanahan was a student there but said it had not offered her a scholarship. The school said Shanahan received some tuition assistance but declined to say how much.
Shanahan graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2007 and worked at a Seattle law firm during the same period. According to her LinkedIn profile, she later worked at patent company RPX and founded patent technology company ClearAccess IP in 2013. She received her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2014.
Adam Phillips, founder and managing partner of Aeon Law in Seattle, where Shanahan worked, said he was impressed when she applied to become a paralegal in 2006. “She had a willingness to learn and a great sense of common sense,” he said.
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Shanahan began dating Krantz, a San Francisco tech investor, in 2011. She told People she converted to Judaism during that time for the relationship. Krantz bought a penthouse overlooking San Francisco for $2.7 million about a month before their August 2014 wedding, property records show.
Shanahan met Brin that July at a yoga festival in Lake Tahoe, California, four people familiar with the matter said. He had just separated from his then-wife, Ann Wojcicki. Brin and Shanahan began their relationship weeks before she married Krantz, the people said.
They said Krantz discovered the relationship when he saw text messages between Shanahan and Breen on her phone a few days after they were married. He filed for an annulment 27 days after the marriage, court records show.
Krantz planned to cite fraud as a reason to annul the marriage, the people said. But Shanahan worried that a fraud allegation would jeopardize her ability to practice law. While negotiating a separation with Krantz, she threatened to self-harm, three people said.
Instead of annulling the marriage, Krantz agreed to a divorce without filing fraud charges. As part of the settlement, Shanahan was required to remove any references to Krantz from her social media accounts and pay him $20,000 for part of the wedding and his attorney fees, court records show. Krantz did not respond to a request for comment.
Become a philanthropist
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Brin became Shanahan’s gateway to the tech industry’s upper echelons, and the two traveled the world, traveling on Brin’s yacht and staying in the fanciest camps at Burning Man, the annual counterculture festival in the Nevada desert.
They married in 2018 and had a daughter, Echo, the same year. They own homes in Lake Tahoe, Los Altos, California, Montana, and Malibu, California, where Shanahan now spends most of his time.
In 2019, Shanahan established a foundation named after her daughter, Bia-Echo, to focus on criminal justice and fertility preservation. (Shanahan said she had struggled to conceive.) She used more than $20 million of Brin’s money toward that work, tax documents show.
To raise her profile, Shanahan hired Matthew Hiltzik, a publicist who has worked with Katie Couric and other high-profile women. Her goal is to become a prominent philanthropist like MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, four people familiar with Shanahan’s plans said.
In 2020, Shanahan sold ClearAccess IP to patent technology company IPwe, which filed for bankruptcy this year, in exchange for more than $10 million in IPwe stock, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Around the time of the sale, Shanahan and Breen learned that Eco had autism. Shanahan said the diagnosis made her question the use of childhood vaccines, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says are safe.
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Marriage breakdown
Three people close to the Breens said Brin and Shanahan found the coronavirus pandemic lockdown difficult. They faced many issues, including their daughter’s autism, the people said.
Shanahan began going out more often without Breen, according to five people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Times. At a party in Miami in early 2021, Shanahan suffered a severe intoxication from drugs and alcohol and required intravenous fluids, the documents show.
That fall, Shanahan threw himself a Studio 54-themed birthday party at a New York club. Musk, Brin’s old friend, was in attendance. In December 2021, Shanahan saw Musk again at a private party in Miami that his brother Kimbal Musk threw for Art Basel.
At that party, Elon Musk and Shanahan took ketamine, a popular party drug that is legal with a prescription, and disappeared together for hours, according to four people familiar with the incident and related documents. Shanahan later told Brin that she had sex with Musk, three of whom said she also shared details of the incident with friends, family and advisers.
Breen and Shanahan separated about two weeks after the party, and he filed for divorce the following year, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to court documents.
2022, The Wall Street JournalReportThe report also revealed Shanahan’s meeting with Musk. Musk and Shanahan have denied having an extramarital affair.
In an interview with People last year, Shanahan said she and Musk had been talking about their daughter’s autism treatment that night. She also said it was humiliating to be known for her sex life and be called a liar.
It took Shanahan and Brin nearly 18 months to reach a divorce settlement, court records show. During that time, she threatened to harm herself, two people familiar with the matter said. They finally divorced last year.
Political career

Shanahan has donated to Democrats for years, donor documents show. In 2020, she gave $25,000 to a political action committee supporting President Biden. Last year, when Kennedy was running as the Democratic presidential candidate, she gave him $6,600 – the maximum amount an individual can donate.
In an interview with The Times in February, Ms. Shanahan said she was initially disappointed when Kennedy announced he would run as an independent. But she began investing heavily in his campaign, including in a Super Bowl ad that superimposed a photo of Kennedy with one of his uncle, John F. Kennedy, from his 1960 presidential campaign. Ms. Shanahan said she spoke to Mr. Kennedy only once at the time and had never met him.
Shanahan and her new partner, Jacob Strumwasser, dined with Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl Hines, in March. During the meal, Strumwasser, who previously worked in the cryptocurrency industry, suggested Shanahan as vice president, she said this month on former ESPN anchor Sage Steele’s podcast. Kennedy liked Shanahan’s life story, people familiar with the matter said.
Shanahan began campaigning with Kennedy this month. At a fundraiser in Nashville last week, she announced she had donated another $8 million to the campaign. “I think I know what they’re going to say — they’re going to say Bobby picked me just for my money,” she said.
Her words caused the crowd to laugh.