The mystery person known only as ‘TJ’ in court documents made public last week during Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk has been revealed as the billionaire’s ex-wife Talulah Riley, according to a new report from Bloomberg News.
Riley, a British actress who had small roles in HBO’s Westworld and the FX miniseries Pistol, encouraged Musk to destroy the entire social media platform.
“Can you buy Twitter and then delete it, please!? xx” Riley texted Musk on March 24, according to the documents filed in court. “America is going INSANE.”
Riley’s middle name is “Jane,” according to Bloomberg, which is why she appeared in Musk’s phone as TJ, a mystery to most people when the texts first surfaced. Riley continued sending texts on March 24, apparently upset that the account for right-wing parody website Babylon Bee was suspended from Twitter for referring to a trans woman as “Man of the Year.”
“The Babylon Bee got suspension is crazy. Raiyah and I were talking about it today. It was a fucking joke. Why has everyone become so puritanical?” Riley texted to Musk.
Raiyah refers to Raiyah Bint Al-Hussein, the Princess of Jordan, according to Bloomberg. She’s the half-sister of current Jordanian King Abdullah II and is married to British journalist Ned Donovan.
“Or can you buy Twitter and make it radically free-speech?” Riley texted Musk. “So much stupidity comes from Twitter xx.”
Riley, who has roughly 50,000 followers on Twitter but hasn’t tweeted since July, was penning a dystopian novel that was mysteriously shelved in 2019 before finally getting published this past summer.
When Musk finally responded to the litany of texts from Riley, he said, “Maybe buy it and change it to properly support free speech xx.”
Musk and Riley were first married in 2010 and divorced for the first time in 2012. The two were married again in 2013 and divorced for the second time in 2016.
The texts, which also included correspondence with people like Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, and podcast host Joe Rogan, are relevant to the case brought by Twitter after Musk said he wanted to buy the social media company and take it private for roughly $US44 ($61) billion. Musk later backed out of the deal, sinking Twitter’s share price in the process, and the company is suing to force Musk to finalise the deal.