Elon Musk 'much different person' after purchasing Twitter: author

American non-fiction author Ben Mezrich revealed Tuesday that tech giant Elon Musk once had a mental breakdown because he was worried that his reputation was being damaged while operating X, formerly Twitter.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, the “Breaking Twitter” author alleged: "He got to a point where he locked himself in his office, was so upset that the Twitter employees were considering calling in a wellness check by the San Francisco police because they thought he was going to self-harm."

“I think he truly cares about his reputation.”

The 52-year-old tech mogul, according to the writer, is a very different guy than he was before purchasing the impactful social media platform in 2022, Page Six reported.

“Twitter broke Elon Musk,” the nonfiction writer said. “Not only did he destroy this sort of global town hall, but he destroyed himself in the process.”

Mezrich attributed Musk’s alleged mental health decline to a series of negative incidents that took place last year including getting booed at comedian Dave Chapelle’s show in San Francisco last December.

The 50-year-old comedian told Musk at the time, “You weren’t expecting this, were ya?” before joking, “It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience.”

The SpaceX founder later responded to the incident via a tweet, saying: “Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life.”

He added sarcastically, “It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists … but nahhh.”

Furthermore, Mezrich claimed that Musk was “shocked” by the audience’s reaction, noting, “This never happened to Elon before, and this spiral started.”

Additionally, Mezrich revealed that the Tesla CEO was allegedly impacted when his son was attacked by a "crazy stalker" in the same month as the comedy event.

An anonymous individual in a mask and black hood is said to have followed Musk's then-two-year-old son in a car in December 2022 and "climbed" atop the vehicle in Los Angeles.

Subsequently, the masked guy revealed his identity as Brandon Collado, an Uber driver, who tweeted to Musk, saying, "You have connections to me and have stalked me and my family for over a year."

The father of 11 children reportedly takes ketamine microdoses to manage depression, according to a Wall Street Journal article published in June.

Musk, who has Asperger's syndrome, opened up about his mental health in 2017 and hinted that he might have bipolar disorder as well.

“The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don’t think people want to hear about the last two,” he tweeted at the time. “I’m sure there are better answers than what I do, which is just take the pain and make sure you really care about what you’re doing.”

However, Musk's representatives have not yet responded to Mezrich’s claims, according to Page Six.