The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has a net worth of £212bn, a figure which is expected to rise after reaching an agreement to buy Twitter for an estimated £34.6bn.
Just like his net worth, Musk’s family continues to grow as well. The Tesla CEO is the father of eight children, including a pair of twins and a set of triplets.
Over the last two decades, he has been in long-term relationships with three women and has children with two of them, his ex-wife Justine Wilson and ex-girlfriend Grimes. Musk’s first child was born in 2002, and his most recent in 2021.
Read more: How Elon Musk made his £200bn fortune before he bought Twitter
The mothers
The 50-year-old entrepreneur’s first six children are shared with Canadian author Justine Wilson, and the last two with singer-songwriter Grimes. Musk met his first wife, Wilson, while they were both students at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
The college sweethearts wed in 2000 but after seven years of marriage, divorced in 2008. Two years later, Musk married and divorced actress Talulah Riley twice during a six-year stretch with their first marriage lasting from 2010 to 2012, and their second from 2013 to 2016. The pair did not have children together.
Musk’s most recent relationship with musician Grimes (whose real name is Claire Boucher) started in 2018. The couple had their first child in 2020, but reportedly split up in September 2021 before getting back together in March 2022 and welcoming their second child via surrogate.
Shortly after the news, Grimes tweeted that the pair had split up again.
Loss of first son
Musk’s first son with Justine Wilson, Nevada Alexander Musk was born on May 18, 2002, in Orange County, California. But, in a tragic turn of events, the infant died 10 days later on May 28 after he stopped breathing at his family home.
According to Musk’s biography written by Ashley Vance, his parents put Nevada to sleep, and when they returned, he was no longer breathing. Paramedics were able to resuscitate the child, but after three days on life support, Nevada’s parents were left with the difficult decision to switch off his machine after receiving news that his brain was no longer functioning properly.
Nevada Alexander Musk cause of death is said to be sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS- otherwise known as "cot death" – is the sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.
It has no established cause, but studies point toward several factors including, a low birth weight, brain abnormalities, and environmental stresses such as a minor illness or a breathing obstruction. Nevada’s mother, Wilson, grieved openly, however, Musk remained reserved about the tragedy.
That was until he sent a series of emails to James Riley, the parent of a driver who died in a car crash while driving a Tesla.
"There is nothing worse than losing a child," Musk wrote in an email to James Riley dated May 10, 2018, reports Business Insider. “My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat.”
