Elon Musk’s ex girlfriend Jennifer Gwynne auctions off early photos of the billionaire
Elon Musk’s ex girlfriend, Jennifer Gwynne, is auctioning off mementos from her relationship with the Tesla founder.
Gwynne dated the billionaire in 1994, when the two were in their early 20s and studying at University of Pennsylvania. Now, she is auctioning old photographs and personal items from their one-year relationship to raise money for her stepson’s college tuition.
Gwynne, now 48 and living in South Carolina, opened up about her relationship with Musk to the Daily Mail on Monday. She explained that their romance was “sweet” but wasn’t “extremely affectionate”.
The pair broke up when Musk moved to Palo Alto in 1995, around the same time he started dating his first wife, Justine Wilson, whom Gwynne claims he had been seeing behind her back.
“We met in the fall of 1994. I was a junior and he was a senior,” Gwynne told the outlet. “We were in the same dorm and we worked together.”
“His shy nature attracted me at first,” she continued. “He used to be my type.”
“He was very intense, very focused on his studies. Back then he was always talking about electric cars,” Gwynne added. “He was definitely going somewhere. He just saw school as a stepping stone.”
Gwynne explained that she had resisted for years selling some of her keepsake items from Musk, but decided after seeing others make money off their mementos from the billionaire that “now’s the time”.
“I’ve had these pictures and the notes for a long, long time,” she said. “But now I’m like, ‘Well the man cannot stay out of the headlines,’ so.”
Eighteen photographs of Musk are available to purchase on RR Auctions. Some of the images feature a young Musk photographed solo, or with friends and Gwynne. The minimum bid for each photo is $100.
Among the big ticket items includes a signed birthday card from Musk, currently priced at $1,331. The card reads: “Happy Birthday Jennifer (aka, Boo-Boo) Love, Elon”.
There is also a one dollar bill signed by the Tesla boss available for auction, which sits at $2,200 with 14 bids. Musk also gifted Gwynne a 14k gold necklace with a small green emerald, currently at $357 with eight bids.
Included with the necklace are two original photos of Musk and Gwynne, one depicting them standing with Musk’s mother, Maye, during a visit to New York City. According to the auction website, the emerald necklaces came from Musk’s father’s emerald mine in South Africa.
Gwynne described when she first met Musk’s mother Toronto during Christmas break in 1994. ‘[Maye] was wonderful, very sweet, very gracious and really included me in conversations. She was wonderful,” Gwynne said. “She came to Philadelphia at the end of the school year and she took us to New York to see Tommy on Broadway.”
The auction for each of the items listed will end on 14 September.
