He’s the world’s richest man, but Elon Musk is all the poorer after one of his seven living children declared they no longer “wish to be related” to the $300 billion businessman, documents filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court reveal.
WATCH: Grimes and Elon Musk go public with their romance at the Met Gala
On April 18 – just three days after her 18th birthday – Xavier Alexander Musk requested to legally change her gender from male to female, as well as her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Choosing to take on mother Justine Musk’s maiden name, Vivian says in the documents her name and gender change aligns with the desire to “no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.
While there have been no reports of unrest between Elon and his children prior to the filing, Justine has given a little insight into Vivian’s feelings after the news went viral.
She wrote on Twitter, “‘I had a weird childhood,’ my 18-year-old said to me. ‘I can’t believe I’m as normal-seeming as I am,’” the tweet began. “I said, ‘I’m very proud of you.’” To which she claims Vivian replied: “I’m proud of myself!”
Elon responded to the court filing by taking to Twitter (who he is still in negotiations with to buy the platform), where he wrote: “I love all my kids so much.”
Vivian and her twin brother, Griffin, are Elon’s eldest living children, after his first child with Justine, Nevada, died of sudden infant death syndrome at only 10 weeks.
They also share 16-year-old triplets, Kai, Saxon and Damian, from their eight-year marriage, which ended in 2008.
Just weeks later, Elon met and proposed to actress Talulah Riley, who he was married to from 2010 to 2012. They remarried in 2013, only to divorce for good in 2016.
Once more, weeks later he was linked to another actress, Amber Heard, following her own public split from Johnny Depp.
WATCH: Amber Heard Rejected Elon Musk For ‘a Long Time’
When that ended, he moved on to Canadian singer Grimes (real name Claire Boucher), and by May 2020 they’d welcomed their first child together – giving him a very controversial moniker.
Originally named X Æ A-12, the famous couple were forced to change it to X AE A-Xii, removing the Æ and 12, so his birth certificate would comply with California law.
After ending the relationship in September 2021, in December they quietly welcomed a daughter via surrogate and again went outside the box with the name selection, choosing Exa Dark Sideræl.
The split made way for a new romance with Aussie actress, Natasha Bassett.
In 2020, the Tesla chief made some unusual comments about fatherhood to The New York Times, telling the publication he doesn’t play a huge role in his children’s lives.
“Right now, there’s not much I can do,” he admitted. “When the kid gets older, there will be more of a role for me.”
A year later he told Clubhouse his kids were raised by the internet, “mostly educated by YouTube and Reddit”.
According to his “starter wife” Justine, Elon could have channelled some of the same passion he has for power into being a good husband and father.
In a 2008 essay in Marie Claire, she opened up about what it was like to be married to, and share children with, the mogul.
She recalled how mid first dance at their wedding reception, her new husband whispered to her: “I am the alpha in this relationship.”
Justine said: “I shrugged it off, just as I would later shrug off signing the postnuptial agreement, but as time went on, I learned that he was serious.”
She blamed his own childhood. “He had grown up in the male-dominated culture of South Africa, and the will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home.”
His comments about fatherhood, and Justine’s recollections, are astounding considering his relationship with his own father, Errol.
He grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, where he was primarily cared for by a housekeeper, he told Rolling Stone. “I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents.”
His engineer father and model mother, Maye, split when he was young, and while at first he felt sorry for his “lonely” dad, he came to despise him, going as far as to call him “evil”.
“He was such a terrible human being. You have no idea,” he told the publication. “My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil,” he shared, without going into detail.
Now the world will watch to see how Elon reacts to the court’s decision and if more of his kids follow suit in unaligning themselves from their father, who plans to land on Mars by 2029.
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