Elon Musk may keep his family life private, but the entrepreneur has provided rare insight into his life as a father over the years while raising children with Justine Musk, Grimes and Shivon Zilis.
Elon became a father in 2002 when he and his then-wife Justine welcomed their son Nevada. The newborn died of SIDS or SIDS 10 weeks later.
The former couple welcomed twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004, followed by triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian in 2006.
When Vivian came out as transgender and wanted to change her name in April 2022, Justine tweeted that she was “very proud” of her child – but Elon has not yet addressed the name change, which was awarded in June.
Tesla CEO and Justine, an author, retired in 2008 after eight years of marriage. Elon went on to date Talulah Riley and Amber Heard before starting an on-again, off-again, off-again relationship with Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher.
The singer gave birth to their first child together, son X AE A-XII, in May 2020. Their daughter, Exa, arrived via surrogate in December 2021, with the duo waiting three months to announce her arrival.
Then in July 2022, news broke that a month before Exa’s birth, Elon secretly welcomed twins with Zilis, a Neuralink executive.
Find out below what the SpaceX founder has to say about his growing family — as well as working fatherhood, child custody, and more.
What He Said About His Twins With Zilis
“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is by far the greatest danger facing civilization.” Elon tweeted in July 2022 after news broke about babies No. 9 and 10, seemingly confirming his paternity.
“Mark my words, unfortunately they are true,” he continued, noting that the “population of Mars is still zero people.”
Elon, who has expressed concern about population collapse in the past, went on to write: “Hope you have great families and congratulations to those who already do!”
What he said about working fatherhood
Explaining to the New York Times in July 2020 why Grimes was taking on most of their childcare, Elon said, “Babies are just machines for eating and pooping, you know? There’s not much I can do right now. Grimes has a much bigger role than me at the moment.”
He shared his intentions to get more involved “as the child gets older”, saying: “I think… [I’ll end up] just doing what i did with my other kids. For example, if I have a trip for Tesla to China, I take the kids and we go to the Great Wall or we took the high-speed train from Beijing to Xian and saw the Terracotta Warriors.”
What he said about the birth of X
“Mom and baby all well”, the native of South Africa tweeted from the hospital in May 2020.
Later that same month, Elon told Joe Rogan that having a baby as an older parent was “better” because he[d]the experience more.
What he said about X’s name
Elon clarified during a “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast interview in May 2020 that Grimes chose their son’s unique name.
“First of all, my partner is the one who actually came up with the name. She’s great at names,” the businessman said, noting that his “contribution” was the A-XII in honor of “Archangel 12, the predecessor of the SR-71, the coolest plane ever.”
What He Said About Nevada’s Death
Elon reportedly wrote in a May 2018 email to the father of a teen who died in a Tesla crash that there is “nothing worse than losing a child”, adding: “My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his heartbeat.”
What has he said about being a current father?
Speaking at the June 2016 Code Conference, Elon said his kids make him “the happiest,” adding, “I always try to set aside time for my kids because I love being with them. I mean, kids are really great.”
He went on to say that he often plays video games with his kids or works while “hanging out” in the same room as them.
“Often kids are kind of in their own world, so they don’t want to spend hours talking to their dad,” Elon explained at the time.
What did he say about custody of his children?
“I’m a pretty good dad,” Elon said in “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” written by Ashlee Vance and published in 2015. “I’ve had the kids for a little over half a week. and spend quite a bit of time with them. I also take them with me when I go out of town.”
The University of Pennsylvania graduate later acknowledged that if he died on Mars — as he “wanted” — his partner would “probably die on Mars.” [our kids] on earth.”
What has he said about taking care of his children?
Elon encouraged USC students to take risks before having children in his 2014 kick-off speech, explaining, “Once you have a family, you start taking risks, not just for yourself, but for your family. becomes much harder to do things that might not work.”