Meet The Mothers Of Elon Musk's Children

Elon Musk has left nothing to ambiguity — he wants lots of children to repopulate the planet. He's long been consistent in his messaging that a declining birth rate is a problem for society, as he's warned that the birth rate "will lead to mass extinction of entire nations" (via Newsweek). While his concerns aren't entirely to be believed, with a report from the charity Population Matters saying, "His claims are in some cases inconsistent with the existing evidence and/or expert opinion, and his opinions are open to challenge on a wide range of fronts," Musk has demonstrated that he believes his words wholeheartedly.

In October 2024, The New York Times reported that Musk built a 14,400-square-foot Tuscan-inspired villa in Austin, Texas, that, along with two other mansions in the area, where he hopes to house his blended families. He denied this report to Page Six, saying, "No grand family compound/home has been built or is expected to be built." His potential dreams of one big happy family might not be as easy as they sound, though. He's the father to 12 children, 11 of whom are still with us, from three different women, and all of them have radically different relationships with the richest man in the world.

Justine and Elon Musk met in college at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Though it took them until after they graduated to reconnect and start a relationship — and after a pit stop teaching English in Japan for Justine — they eventually settled down together and married in 2000. It was around this time that Elon's fortunes grew with the rise of PayPal, he and Justine had children, and their relationship began to change.

Justine and Elon had six kids. Their first son, Nevada Alexander, tragically passed away at 10 weeks old due to SIDS. "I buried my feelings instead, coping with Nevada's death by making my first visit to an IVF clinic less than two months later," Justine wrote in an essay for Marie Claire in 2010. The couple had twins in 2004 and triplets in 2006, all via IVF. Still, her young son's death had caused her a "years-long inward spiral of depression and distraction," and, through therapy, she began to see what her glamorous life had truly become. "The whirlwind of glitter couldn't disguise a growing void at the core," she wrote. Eventually, the couple divorced.

During her marriage to Elon, Justine Musk became a successful author, having published the novels "Blood Angel," "Lord of Bones," and "Uninvited." She's receded from the spotlight over the years, but did give various TED presentations in the 2010s.

Elon Musk's most high-profile relationship was with the singer Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher. They connected after Boucher had enjoyed several successful years as a musician. She had already released four albums and opened for bands like Florence and the Machine by the time she and Musk met — on Twitter, no less. They attended The Met Gala together in 2018, their first public outing.

Soon after, they decided to have children. "For a girl, [pregnancy is] sacrificing your body and your freedom," Boucher told Rolling Stone in 2020. She said how she had never been one to sacrifice before, but did so out of love for Musk. "So I was like, 'You know, sure.'" Their son was born in 2020 and they had a daughter via surrogacy in 2021.

However, the couple was in a nebulous period of their relationship. Musk told Page Six in September 2021, "We are semi-separated but still love each other." Boucher told Vanity Fair in 2022, "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid." Whatever was truly going on between them, they decided to expand their family and welcomed a third child in September 2023, which Musk confirmed on X, formerly Twitter. Their relationship then seemingly went south as Boucher sued Musk in October 2023 over parental rights to their children. 

During Elon Musk's messy split with Grimes, he was also expecting children with tech executive Shivon Zilis. She was on the board of OpenAI, which Musk helped found, until 2023, and joined the board of directors of Shield AI in 2023. She's also become the director of special projects at Neuralink, another of Musk's companies.

According to the biography "Elon Musk" by Walter Isaacson, Zilis said, "[Musk] really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to do this. I can't possibly think of genes I would prefer for my children." He offered to be her sperm donor and together they have three children. Their twins were born in November 2021 and quietly had a third child sometime in 2024. "All our friends and family know. Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean 'secret,'" Musk told Page Six after various outlets reported he had a secret child.

While Musk has been increasingly present in political circles since the 2024 presidential election, Zilis has remained private. That changed during a pre-inauguration event for President Donald Trump on January 19, 2025, when she made a rare public appearance with Elon.