What We Know About Elon Musk's Strained Relationship With His Daughter Vivian

Elon Musk has been linked to various women over the years and has fathered 12 children — six with his first wife, Justine Musk (née Wilson), three with singer Grimes, and three with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. It's worth noting that Musk welcomed his second child with Grimes shortly after he had twins with Zilis. It's, er, quite a lot to keep up with, and when one takes into account what Musk's daughter, Vivian Wilson, says about her father, it appears that Musk, too, finds it hard to keep up with his 12 kids. He's previously joked that his numerous children are the answer to what he deemed the "underpopulation crisis." In 2022, the tech tycoon took to X, formerly Twitter, to write, "Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."

While most of Musk's kids fly under the radar, Vivian Wilson, who was assigned male at birth along with her twin brother, Griffin Musk, but identifies as female, has been pretty outspoken about her rocky relationship with her father. Speaking to NBC News in 2024, Wilson revealed that Musk wasn't a loving father to her. Whenever she showed her more feminine side as a child, Musk would ridicule her. "I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn't know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don't remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high," she recalled. "It was cruel." Wilson also recalled how Musk told her to work on lowering the pitch of her voice when she was in elementary school, pushing her to be more boy-like. Unfortunately, Wilson's relationship with Musk has only deteriorated since.

While we know little about Elon Musk's 12 children and the kind of relationship he has with them, Vivian Wilson has shed some light on the kind of father he has been to her, and she gave him a one-star review. Speaking to NBC News, Wilson didn't mince her words when she spoke about the role Musk played in her life while growing up. She revealed that, as a young girl, she barely knew her dad. He was never around, and when he was, he scolded her instead of trying to get to know her. "He was cold. He's very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic," Wilson said, adding, "He doesn't know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn't there, and in the little time that he was, I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness." She theorized that her father sees her as little more than a queer stereotype, warning that Musk's supposed love of children is likely just a smokescreen and that he has little regard for the queer community, something that was evident when he announced that misgendering people on his social media platform, X, will be an acceptable norm. In 2020, he also tweeted, "Pronouns suck."

Wison's account of Musk's far-from-fatherly nature makes one wonder why the man has opted to have so many kids, but it seems likely he does simply see them as a means to an end, in other words, helping the population grow, as he mentioned in his 2022 tweet. Journalist Walter Isaacson, who interviewed Musk for his Time magazine cover, told Today that the billionaire is very concerned about the human population. "He believes that people should have many more children. [He] wants to have a lot of children," Isaacson said. 12 is not enough?

Ever since Elon Musk fostered a relationship with Donald Trump, he's become increasingly outspoken against the transgender community, equating it to a "woke mind virus." While speaking to best-selling author and clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson, Musk touched on his daughter, saying he never truly consented to signing the documents for her gender-affirming care. "I was essentially tricked into signing documents," Musk claimed. "This was really before I had any understanding of what was going on, and we had Covid going on, so there was a lot of confusion." He added, "I lost my son, essentially." Musk claimed the only reason he finally signed the documents was because he was told Wilson's risk of suicide was high if he didn't.

After the interview aired, Wilson spoke to NBC News to tell her side of the story, saying there was absolutely no trickery involved in getting Musk to sign the documents for her gender-affirming care. "He was not by any means tricked. He knew the full side effects," she told the outlet, explaining that Musk went through the documents with her twice before adding his signature. She also dubbed her father a liar for claiming he was coerced into signing the medical documentation.

Musk, meanwhile, made his views on transgender care clear in March 2024 when he took to X, formerly Twitter, to ridicule the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) for their work. "WPATH executives deserve a long prison sentence for their crimes mutilating children," Musk wrote.

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In 2022, Vivian Wilson cut all ties with Elon Musk when she filed a petition to officially change her name and gender identity. "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form," she said in court documents (via NBC News).

Musk never commented on Wilson's decision to permanently distance herself from him, but his actions that followed the petition indicated that he wasn't willing to change his views in support of his daughter. During his interview with Jordan B. Peterson, Musk made it clear that he will do everything in his power to keep children from receiving gender-affirming care. "I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after [my daughter's transition], and we're making some progress," he said.

If one person is going to call Elon Musk out for his dubious ways, it's Vivian Wilson. She's publicly shed light on her father's insincerity over the years, most notably when one X (formerly Twitter) user pointed out what an amazing family man Musk is. When the tech billionaire sat down for an interview in August 2024, he was accompanied by some of his younger kids, and fans were eating it up. "Even though Elon Musk was super busy, he still made time for his family. Nothing is more important than family," the user wrote. Musk replied, "All 5 boys super happy."

Wilson took to Threads, X's rival platform, a day later, ridiculing what she deemed Musk's fake fatherly persona. " It seems to me like you're trying to rebuild your brand image as the 'caring paternal father' which I will not let go unchallenged," she wrote. "You are not a family man, you are a serial adulterer who won't stop f*****g lying about your own children," she continued. She also called out Musk for misgendering her during the interview.

Wilson also took a moment to discuss her father's seemingly sudden adoption of Christianity. During a July 2024 interview with Jordan B. Peterson, Musk called himself a "cultural Christian." "I'm actually a big believer in the principles of Christianity. I think they're very good," the Tesla CEO said. Wilson challenged this, writing, "You are not a christian, as far as I'm aware you've never stepped foot in a church."

Elon Musk was Donald Trump's biggest cheerleader during the 2024 presidential election (and now he won't stop annoying the president-elect), but it should come as no surprise that Vivian Wilson did not share her father's enthusiasm. After the election results were in and Trump emerged the victor, Wilson took to Threads to share her concerns. "I've thought this for a while, but yesterday confirmed it for me. I don't see my future being in the United States. Even if he's only in office for 4 years, even if the anti-trans regulations magically don't happen, the people who willingly voted this in are not going anywhere anytime soon," she wrote.

In Musk's speeches leading up to the election, he doubled down on claims that Trump can fix all Americans' financial problems, urging people to get their friends and family to vote for the divisive politician. "This is a real battle. This is a real election battle," Musk reiterated. "Make the margin of victory so big that you-know-what can't happen," he added, likely referring to Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats. On election day, Musk also went on a misinformation spree, tweeting falsities faster than experts could fact-check them. This, despite election officials trying to provide Musk with correct information prior to election day. "I've had my friends hand-deliver stuff to him," Republican and top election official in Arizona, Stephen Richter, told CNN. "We've pulled out more stops than most people have available to try to put accurate information in front of (Musk). It has been unsuccessful,"

Wilson also commented on the matter, writing, "Watching the grown members of my ex-'family' in the media/twitter-sphere recently makes me glad that I didn't develop my genetic pre-disposition of apparently not having a f*****g spine. That's all."