Talulah in InStyle UK March 2012

Millionaire PayPal founder Elon Musk’s wife has filed for divorce … TMZ has learned.

The British “Pride and Prejudice” actress — named Talulah Riley — filed the papers on January 17th, citing “irreconcilable differences” … one day before Musk publicly announced the couple’s split on Twitter.

In a telephone interview with Forbes on the 18th, Musk — worth a reported $680 million — made it sound as though he was the driving force behind the divorce, claiming, “I still love her, but I’m not in love with her. And I can’t really give her what she wants.”

The Forbes headline reads, “Elon Musk to Divorce Wife” — but clearly, Talulah beat him to the punch. So far, Elon has NOT filed divorce documents.

It’s unclear who truly wished to end the relationship, or whether it was a mutual decision. {tmz.com}

This certainly puts an interesting spin on things!

This is really awful and i’m sad to report it. They seemed so happy together, and it’s hard to believe they are really splitting. Elon taking this public is really unfair and immature, and I hope that unlike Elon, Talulah’s fans can give her the privacy and respect she needs to recover.

Last night Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced via Twitter a separation from his wife, the British actress Talulah Riley.

“@rileytalulah It was an amazing four years. I will love you forever. You will make someone very happy one day,” Musk wrote.

This morning on the phone Musk commended Riley as “a great woman” with whom he simply fell out of love. They had been together for four years, married for one. Riley has lived away from their home in Bel Air for nearly six months.

“We took some time apart for several months to see if absence makes the heart grow fonder, and unfortunately it did not,” Musk said. “I still love her, but I’m not in love with her. And I can’t really give her what she wants.”

Musk said he will “always be friends” with the 26-year-old Pride & Prejudice star but said it’s “far too difficult to stay married. Every day was just too difficult.”

One major difficulty was a lack of connection on essential character traits, Musk said.

“I think the foundation of love is virtue,” he said, noting such qualities as hard work, sacrifice and excellence. “To the degree that someone has the sort of things that you intrinsically feel are virtuous then your love will increase. It’s the idea that what you as an indiviuadual truly perceive as virtue–not what others want you to perceive or what you think society wants you to perceive but what you really perceive as virtue–is the essential part of the person. What lies within their heart.”

The South African native called Riley the “polar opposite” of his first wife, Justine Musk, who had blogged extensively about the acrimonious terms of their divorce. Elon and Justine have five young sons together.

Musk said he would like to have a meaningful relationship with someone new, though perhaps someone in a different industry.

“The entertainment industry is not known for attracting people with noble virtues–in which case I will need to look elsewhere,” he said. “I haven’t met many people really that would meet those virtues, I suppose. And [if I don't] that would be sad because then I will not have anyone.”

For now, Musk says, he will bide his time.

“I think it would be extremely unwise for me to jump into a third marriage without spending considerable time figuring out if the third one will work–it was never my intention to have a short marriage,” Musk said. “Essentially I’d want to be super sure before getting married again, but I certainly would love to be in a relationship. For sure.”

Riley could not be reached for comment and apparently has not responded to Musk’s tweet. {forbes.com}