Elon Musk says he gets 'swarmed' at parties by people wanting to discuss work, and struggles to trust people, reporter who secured rare interview says

Elon Musk said he's often surrounded by men trying to pitch him ideas at parties.

Theo Wargo/WireImage

• Elon Musk gave an unexpected interview to the BBC late Tuesday.
• According to James Clayton, the reporter who spoke to Musk, the billionaire opened up about his personal life.
• Musk said he's often "swarmed" by people at parties wanting to discuss work, Clayton wrote.

Elon Musk opened up about his social life in a rare candid interview with the BBC on late Tuesday night, saying it's hard to trust people. 

Musk spoke with BBC correspondent James Clayton about his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in October and the six months that have followed including the layoffs. 

According to Clayton's first hand account of his conversation with Musk, the billionaire also shared tidbits about his personal life, with Clayton writing: "He told me he'd often be swarmed by men at parties talking about projects — and that it was hard to trust people."

Musk — who is currently worth $176 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — has discussed the pains of wealth and fame and the accompanying loneliness before. 

He's said that being such a well-known name has made it difficult to "go buy a coffee at the corner store," in an interview with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, Insider's parent company, in 2022. 

"I used to be able to go to the store or walk down the street and now it's quite difficult to do that," he added. 

He also admitted to feeling lonely at times telling Döpfner: "If I'm working on the Starship rocket and I'm just staying in my little house by myself, especially if my dog is not with me, then I feel quite lonely because I'm just in a little house by myself with no dog."

Musk's social circle is comprised largely of family and powerful friends including his brother Kimball Musk, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, James Murdoch, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and even rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. 

In his interview with Clayton, Musk touched on a wide range of topics including that laying off staff was "one of the hardest things" he's had to do, that he sometimes sleeps on a couch in a library at Twitter's headquarters, and that the "constant attacks" he has received from the media have been hurtful. 

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