Elon Musk
Relationships and children

Musk has at least 12 children, one of whom is deceased. He met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children.

In 2022, the elder twin officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, reflecting her gender identity as a trans woman and using her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as "the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists ", and has said that her gender transition is primarily what sparked his drive to "destroy the woke mind virus ". In a July 2024 episode of Jordan Peterson 's podcast, Musk said regarding Vivian that he had "lost son, essentially" because of gender-affirming care. He commented: "You know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it's called deadnaming is because your son is dead", and went on to state that the eldest twin "is dead, killed by the woke mind virus". Vivian responded publicly, criticizing Musk for lying about her and the circumstances of her transition; claiming that Musk was "cold", "quick to anger", "uncaring and narcissistic”, whose infrequent visits commonly involved him berating her for being feminine.

In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, before remarrying the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012.

In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes said that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020. Musk and Grimes originally gave the baby the name "X Æ A-12", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet, which they then changed to "“X Æ A-Xii”. They have received criticism for choosing such an impractical and difficult to pronounce name.

In December 2021, Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid." Later that month, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again. In September 2023 it was reported that the pair had a third child, a son. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of their eldest son.

In July 2022, Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins via IVF with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, in November 2021. They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The news "raise questions about workplace ethics", given that Zilis directly reported to Musk. Their third child together was born in early 2024 via surrogacy. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as "an occasional girlfriend."
language:response_language[French]