Meet Elon Musk's 12 Kids

This article includes discussion of child loss.

Over the course of his life thus far, Elon Musk has fathered 12 children with three different women. In 2002, Elon and his now ex-wife, Justine Wilson, welcomed their first child, Nevada Alexander Musk, who sadly passed away from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) when he was only 10 weeks old. In a 2010 essay for Marie Claire, Justine admitted that her now ex-husband's perspective on their infant's death made grieving even more difficult for her. "Elon made it clear that he did not want to talk about Nevada's death," she wrote. "I didn't understand this, just as he didn't understand why I grieved openly, which he regarded as 'emotionally manipulative.'" 

As a result, Wilson had no choice but to suppress her grief as much as possible and decided to start IVF treatments a mere two months after the tragedy so she could get pregnant again ASAP. Although Wilson had plenty of distractions in the ensuing years, nothing could keep her sorrow buried forever, ultimately leading to a "years-long inward spiral of depression and distraction." Wilson eventually went to therapy upon her nanny's recommendation and gradually learned how to cope with the loss in a healthier manner. Although Elon never really addressed Nevada's passing, he took to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 to write that his "firstborn child died in [his] arms." 

However, his first wife quoted the tweet and clarified that the SpaceX founder hadn't been holding their baby as he passed — she had. Wilson also called the emotional moment "one of the most sacred and defining moments of my life."

Elon Musk and his first wife, Justine Wilson, welcomed twins Vivian Jenna Wilson and Griffin Musk in 2004. A few days after Vivian, who was assigned male at birth, turned 18 in April 2022, she filed court documents to change her first name to accurately reflect her identity as a transgender woman. She also sought to adopt her mother's last name because Vivian no longer wanted to have any ties to her father whatsoever. While discussing his daughter's gender identity with controversial rightwing commentator Jordan Peterson, Elon infamously stated that she was "dead, killed by the woke mind virus," per The Washington Post. 

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Financial Times, the former PayPal co-owner posited that his relationship with Vivian was fractured because her education had given the young woman the idea that rich people were nothing but exploitative, evil figures. Unsurprisingly, Vivian had an entirely different take. While speaking to NBC News in 2024, she labeled Elon an absentee parent. "He was cold," Vivian recalled. "He's very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic." 

She was also asked about her thoughts on her father's X tweet in which he claimed that she was "born gay and slightly autistic" and listed out some stereotypes to make his case. Vivian pointed out that her father hadn't spent enough time with her to form an accurate portrayal of who she is, adding, "In the little time that he was [around,] I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness." Suffice it to say that Elon's relationship with his daughter Vivian will likely remain strained for the foreseeable future.

In 2006, Elon Musk and Justine Wilson's triplets, Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk, were born. During a 2017 TEDx Talk, Wilson disclosed that the former couple had conceived them through IVF. She also offered some insight into her daily life raising five children. "I hear myself saying pretty typical mom things like, 'Please take the lightsabers off the dinner table,'" Wilson said. "'You know I would very much prefer it if you did not eat your brother's head.'" And it seemed like their kids had already inherited their father's passions because they asked for her blessing to launch their dog into space like a rocket. 

Although the SpaceX founder and his ex-wife keep their kids out of the public eye for the most part, we still got occasional glimpses into their lives over the years. In 2019, Elon posted a clip on X of little Damian captivating some seniors at a nursing home with his phenomenal piano playing. Meanwhile, in Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography, "Elon Musk," he noted that then-8-year-old Damian had become a vegetarian because he wanted "to decrease [his] carbon footprint."

Damian also had a natural talent for playing classical music and was a star at both physics and math to boot. His considerable intelligence hadn't gone unnoticed by his grandmother, Maye Musk, either because she proudly informed Elon that Damian was an even smarter version of him. In 2024, the billionaire commented under a tweet of Damian and Kai meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confirm their identities.

In May 2020, Elon Musk and then-girlfriend Grimes welcomed their first son, X Æ A-12. As people began wondering about the origins of his unusual name, the Canadian singer took to X to share that they had crafted it out of characters that had a deeper meaning to the couple. She explained that X represented the "unknown variable," Æ were the letters used to spell AI in her elven language, and A-12 was the predecessor to their beloved aircraft, SR-17. However, a few weeks later, the "Genesis" hitmaker disclosed on Instagram they had to alter their son's name to X Æ A-Xii because numbers weren't accepted as a part of names under Californian law. 

But, in a 2021 Vogue interview, Grimes proclaimed that her son's name wasn't the only unusual thing about him. "Being a mother feels weird to say. For some reason, I don't identify with that word," she acknowledged. "Which is also really weird because X, he says 'Claire,' but he doesn't say 'mama.' [...] Like, maybe he can sense my distaste for the word 'mother.'" The kooky pop star later revealed to Wired in 2023 that X had developed a deeply rooted love for space and had already surpassed her knowledge of rockets. According to the "Oblivion" singer, her then-3-year-old had "a three-day PTSD meltdown" after SpaceX's Starship exploded earlier in the year. 

She elaborated that her son would wake up to say "Starship" on an hourly basis, and Grimes had to console him by giving him back rubs. 

In Grimes' 2022 Vanity Fair interview, the singer divulged that she had welcomed a daughter with Elon Musk through surrogacy, in December 2021. Once again, the unconventional couple went with an unusual name that held major significance for them: Exa Dark Sideræl Musk. The "Kill V. Maim" songstress explained that Exa came from the supercomputer speed measuring term exaFLOPS, while Dark represented "the unknown. People fear it but truly it's the absence of photons. Dark matter is the beautiful mystery of our universe," and Sideræl was an elven variant of sidereal, AKA "the true time of the universe, star time, deep space time, not our relative earth time." 

However, they usually just referred to her as Y. During her 2023 chat with Wired, Grimes shared that her then-2-year-old had developed a penchant for industrial shipping and was a burgeoning "little engineer." We then learned that the billionaire and the Canadian singer had welcomed a third child named Techno "Tau" Mechanicus Musk through Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography "Elon Musk." The "Delicate Weapon" singer casually informed her partner's biographer that she was in awe of her youngest child's eyes and believed he may as well be from another planet. 

After the memoir hit the shelves, Grimes tweeted that although she was excited for the day everyone could revel in Tau's cuteness, she wanted to keep her children's private lives private to protect them. Around the same time, Musk and Grimes' tragic custody battle for their three kids began, even though they split up in 2022.

One of the strangest things about Elon Musk and Grimes' relationship that everyone ignored was the fact that he quietly welcomed twins Strider and Azure with Neuralink director Shivon Zilis just a couple of weeks before they had Exa Dark Sideræl, per Insider. However, insiders were quick to clarity to Reuters that the pair never shared a sexual or romantic relationship and conceived the children through IVF. Shortly after the Insider article was published, Musk shared the strange reason he had fathered twins with his company's executive. 

The SpaceX founder tweeted that he only wanted to bring more children into this world to counteract the declining population rate and further expressed his concerns about underpopulation. However, we got a more detailed explanation for their decision to have children when Zilis sat down for a chat with Walter Isaacson for "Elon Musk." "He really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to," the Neuralink director divulged. "If the choice is between an anonymous sperm donor or doing it with the person you admire most in the world, for me that was a pretty f**** easy decision. I couldn't possibly think of genes I would prefer for my children." 

Moreover, in a June 2024 chat with Page Six, the divisive billionaire announced that he had welcomed his third child (and twelfth overall) with Zilis a few months prior. Although the duo hadn't broken the news to the public, their inner circle was well aware of it. Still, Musk clearly wanted to keep their infant's life private because he didn't share their name or sex.