He’s the enigmatic multi-billionaire whose controversial statements attract him as much attention as his moves in Silicon Valley. But now it’s Elon Musk’s personal life that’s hitting the headlines.
The 51-year-old, who’s the richest person in the world, has welcomed twins into the world with one of his company’s senior executives. Their birth means he’s now fathered 10 children to three different women.
The huge brood is a ‘good example’ to others, says Musk who recently said he believes “if people don’t have more children, civilisation is going to crumble.”
”There are not enough people,” he said. “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far.” He added: “I hope you have big families and congrats to those who already do!”
The Tesla tycoon who recently shocked Silicon Valley by announcing he’s pulling out of his $44 billion (£36.7 billion) bid to buy the social media platform Twitter, has had his newborns with employee, Shivon Zilis. The 36-year-old is the director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, a company creating a microchip that can be inserted into human brains. The twins were born in November of last year, according to court documents obtained by Business Insider in July 2022 - just one month before another of his children were born, to his ex-partner, Canadian singer Grimes.
Meet all of Musk’s kids and their mothers here.
Nevada Alexander Musk
Musk’s first wife was Canadian author Justine Wilson, whom he married in January 2000. Their first child, Nevada, died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome in 2002. After that the couple decided to use IVF.
Griffin Musk and Vivian Jenna Wilson
Justine and Elon welcomed twins Griffin and Vivian into the world in April 2004.
Last month 18-year-old Vivian, formerly named Xavier Alexander Musk, came out as transgender and requested to have her last name changed from her father’s to her mother’s. The reason she gave was “gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
In 2020, Musk wrote on Twitter that he “absolutely supports trans”, but “all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare”.
Kai, Saxon and Damian Musk
After their twins, the couple — who were married for eight years — went on to have triplets. The three boys, now 16, were born in January 2006 also using IVF.
Justine, age 49, has spoken publicly about her love for her children, saying: “Almost all of my non-work waking hours are spent with my boys, and they are the love of my life.”
Sadly, the relationship between her and Musk wasn’t as easy and the pair got a divorce in 2008. In 2010 she wrote an article for Marie Claire in which she claimed she was a ‘starter wife’ for Musk and said their relationship was unhealthy. She said that during their first dance at their wedding Musk told her he was the ‘alpha’ in the relationship and that he would sack her if she worked for him.
X AE A-XII Musk
Musk started dating Canadian pop star Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, in May 2018 after marrying and divorcing Westworld actress Talulah Riley twice and having a short relationship with actress Amber Heard.
Grimes, 34, gave birth to a baby boy, who they named X AE A-XII, in May 2020. X was originally called X Æ A-12 but this was disallowed by Californian law because it contained characters that weren’t part of the English language so the parents changed his name and call him X for short.
In an interview in July 2020, Musk said he was taking a backseat in terms of parenting. “Grimes has a much bigger role than me right now”, he said of the singer. He added that she was “one of the most unusual people I’ve ever met.”
“When the kid gets older, there will be more of a role for me,” he added.
Exa Dark Sideræl Musk
Grimes and Musk broke up in September 2021 but the singer announced the birth of their first daughter who was born via surrogate in December 2021. They named her Exa Dark Sideræl Musk but call her Y for short.
In an interview in March 2022 she revealed the pair were back together but were ‘fluid’. “There’s no real word for it. I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we’re very fluid,” she explained in a Vanity Fair cover story. “We live in separate houses. We’re best friends. We see each other all the time… We just have our own thing going on, and I don’t expect other people to understand it.”
“This is the best it’s ever been," she said of their relationship. “We just need to be free.”
However, after the article was published she tweeted to say they’d broken up.
Twins - names not yet known
Musk’s twins with Shivon Zilis were born just one month before Exa whom he had with Grimes.
Zilis has worked for Musk for a number of years and is currently the director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, while Musk is co-chief executive. It’s a neural interface technology company which is working on a device to treat neurological disorders.
Musk and Zilis filed a petition to change the twins’ names so that they could have their father’s last name.
