A wedding is supposed to come with flowers, champagne, and promises about forever. For Elon Musk’s first wife, it also came with a lawyer and a financial agreement she believed wouldn’t matter because the marriage wasn’t going anywhere. She was mistaken about that part. Years later, the document would become a central piece of their divorce while the fortune surrounding it grew from millions into the trillions.
Author Justine Musk met the future billionaire at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, when both were students. In her 2010 Marie Claire essay, she described an ambitious young man who took her writing seriously and told her he saw “a fire in my soul.”
The $20 Million Fortune
Musk sold Zip2 in 1999, leaving him worth about $20 million, according to her account. Suddenly, the struggling entrepreneur she had known had a condo, a million-dollar McLaren F1, and a small plane.
The money still felt unreal.
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“Elon’s wealth seemed abstract and unreal,” she wrote, calling it “a string of zeros that existed in some strange space of its own.”
Most of his newfound fortune went into X.com, the online banking company that eventually became part of PayPal (PYPL).
She joked that he might leave her for a supermodel. Instead, he proposed on a street corner.
The Agreement She Thought Wouldn’t Matter
Two months before their January 2000 wedding, she wrote that Musk told her they needed to meet with a lawyer about a “financial agreement” requested by the board of his new company.
When she questioned him, he quickly replied, “It’s not a prenup.”
Two months after the wedding, she signed the postnuptial agreement.
At the time, she trusted her husband and believed divorce was unthinkable.
“We were soul mates,” she wrote. “We would never get divorced.”
“I Am The Alpha In This Relationship”
There was another moment at the wedding reception that would later look different in hindsight.
As they danced, Musk told her, “I am the alpha in this relationship.”
She shrugged it off.
In her account, the financial imbalance between them eventually became part of a larger power struggle. She wrote that his judgment increasingly overruled hers.
“I am your wife,” she recalled telling him, “not your employee.”
“If you were my employee,” she wrote, and he responded, “I would fire you.”
Six Children and a Marriage Under Strain
The couple had six children together. Their first son, Nevada Alexander, died at 10 weeks old in 2002. They later had twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004 and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian in 2006.
The same year Nevada died, eBay (EBAY) bought PayPal. Justine wrote that the sale pushed Musk’s net worth to well over $100 million.
The lifestyle became increasingly extravagant, but she wrote that the wealth couldn’t fix the problems inside the marriage.
By 2008, she wanted greater equality and partnership. The couple tried counseling. After three sessions, she said Musk gave her an ultimatum. He filed for divorce the next morning.
The Postnup Became A Legal Battle
The agreement signed in 2000 became a major issue in the divorce.
Forbes reported that the postnup kept Musk’s premarital assets separate and that Justine had waived claims to his assets from before the marriage and his earnings during the marriage. She challenged the agreement, arguing that he had undervalued assets when it was signed. A judge rejected her challenge, and she appealed.
Forbes also reported that she sought 10% of his Tesla (TSLA) stake, then valued at about $53 million.
The Zeros Kept Growing
The fortune that once seemed like an abstract collection of zeros didn’t stop at $20 million.
Musk eventually became the world’s richest person. In June 2026, Forbes declared him the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX went public, initially estimating his fortune at $1.1 trillion. His wealth briefly reached about $1.45 trillion before falling below the threshold.
As of September, Forbes estimated his fortune at roughly $892 billion.
The number Justine once described as a “string of zeros” had become something almost unimaginable.
She signed the postnup when the fortune was measured in millions.
It eventually reached a trillion.
