Elon Musk allegedly suffered a mental breakdown after facing angry boos at Dave Chappelle's show and experiencing firsthand the damage to his reputation brought by his takeover of Twitter last year, according to writer Ben Mezrich.

Mezrich reported Musk's alleged mental health decline in his new book "Breaking Twitter," in which he covers the SpaceX and Tesla CEO's disastrous acquisition of and reign over Twitter, now known as X.

In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Tuesday, the author shared some details about the "spiral of craziness" Musk went through following his $44 billion Twitter takeover, which has since resulted in a 16% decline in daily active users and the loss of more than half the platform's valuation.

"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," Mezrich alleged of Musk.

The author believes the billionaire "truly cares about his reputation."

Page Six reached out to Musk for comment on Mezrich's claims, but the billionaire has not addressed them as of this writing.

Mezrich also claimed in the interview that the Elon Musk before and after he became the owner of Twitter were two different people.

"Elon didn't just break Twitter - Twitter broke Elon Musk," the writer said. "Not only did he destroy this sort of global town hall, but he destroyed himself in the process."

Mezrich went on to claim that Musk's downward "spiral" began when he was drowned out by boos during an appearance in San Francisco in December 2022, two months after his Twitter acquisition.

Introduced as "the richest man in the world," Musk, who was wearing an "I love Twitter" T-shirt, was greeted by boos after he joined Chappelle onstage at the comedian's gig at the Chase Center, footage from the event showed.

"It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience," Chappelle joked at the time, referring to Musk's mass layoffs at the social media platform.

Mezrich said on CNBC that Musk was "shocked" by the audience's reaction, noting, "This never happened to Elon before, and this spiral started."

The author also claimed that an incident involving Musk's then-2-year-old son X Æ A-Xii that occurred in the same month only added to the billionaire's fears.

At the time, a "crazy stalker" allegedly followed a car carrying Musk's son and "climbed" atop the vehicle in Los Angeles, Musk revealed in a tweet.

After Musk posted a clip that he claimed showed his "stalker," the man, who wore a black hood and a mask at the time of the incident, identified himself as an Uber driver named Brandon Collado.

Collado reportedly responded to Musk's tweet alleging that the tech mogul had "stalked" him and his family "for over a year."

Mezrich claimed on CNBC that while Musk wanted to turn Twitter into a "global place of truth," the platform has instead become a "circus" filled with conspiracy theories and hate speech.

The author also said Musk "would have never bought Twitter" had he known it would "destroy himself."

Tags
Elon Musk, Twitter