Elon Musk is known for being a billionaire businessman who started PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX — but his life as a father has also made headlines.
“He hasn’t been a good dad,” Musk’s father, Errol, claimed in a February 2025 appearance on the “Wide Awake” podcast when asked about the tech guru. “They were too rich, too many nannies. Then he had five children with the same woman, five sons all brought up. Each one had its own nanny.”
When asked how Errol felt about his son’s past partners, he quipped, “Well, fathers are not terribly interested in any of their children’s husbands or wives more or less unless they go out of their way.”
Musk fathered six children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, before welcoming three kids with Grimes. He shares three more kids with Shivon Zilis and allegedly fathered Ashley St. Clair’s child, who was born in late 2024.
While Musk claimed via X in June 2022, “I love all my kids so much,” not all of their moms seem to agree on how he parents.
Scroll down to meet the mothers of Musk’s children — and see where he stands with each one:
Justine Wilson
Musk was married to Wilson from 2000 to 2008. The pair welcomed their first child, son Nevada, in 2002. Nevada died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) when he was 10 weeks old. The pair later welcomed twins Vivian and Griffin in 2004 with the help of IVF. Musk and Wilson welcomed triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian in 2006 again using IVF.
Since their divorce, Wilson has kept quiet about her marriage to Musk for the most part. However, she wrote an essay for Marie Claire in September 2010, calling herself a “starter wife” for Musk.
“Although I am estranged from Elon — when it comes to the children, I deal with his assistant — I don’t regret my marriage,” she wrote. “I’ve worked through some anger, both at Elon for rendering me so disposable, and at myself for buying into a fairy tale when I should have known better.”
Wilson, who is an author, added, “But I will always respect the brilliant and visionary person that he is. I also can’t regret the divorce (our case was bifurcated, which means that even though the property issues aren’t settled, our marriage is legally dead). Elon and I share custody of the children, who are thriving. I feel grounded now, and deeply grateful for my life.”
While Wilson has stayed mostly out of the spotlight, her child Vivian, who is transgender, has publicly fought back against Musk. Vivian filed a name change request in April 2022 to legally be acknowledged as female and change her surname from Musk to Wilson.
“I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” she told a Los Angeles court in June 2022. A judge granted the request that same month.
Grimes
The tech billionaire revealed in May 2018 that he was dating Grimes (real name Claire Boucher). Two years later, the musician gave birth to their son X AE A-XII. News broke in December 2021, that Musk and Grimes welcomed their second baby, daughter Exa Dark Sideræl, via surrogate. The couple, who split in 2022, also share son Techno Mechanicus, born that same year.
Grimes has been very vocal about her ups and downs with Musk over the years. In October 2023, she sued her ex over parenting rights of their three children. The following year, Grimes claimed she didn’t see one of her children for five months because of Musk.
“Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers rights having my Instagram posts and modeling used as reasons I shouldn’t have my kids and fighting and detaching from the love of my life as he becomes unrecognizable to me, with a fraction of his resources (or iq/ strategy experience), all the while I didn’t see one of my babies for 5 months,” she alleged in November 2024, adding, “Most of my experiences these last years should remain behind closed doors.”
Grimes hinted at more trouble with Musk in February 2025 when she publicly urged him to respond to her about a “medical crisis” involving one of their kids.
“I am sorry to do this publicly, but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation,” Grimes wrote via X at the time. “This requires immediate attention. If you don’t want to talk to me can you please designate or hire someone who can do that [so] we can move forward on solving this. This is urgent, Elon.”
In the since-deleted tweet, she claimed that Musk refused to answer her privately. “I’m not giving any details, but he won’t respond to texts call or emails and has skipped every meeting and our child will suffer lifelong impairment if he doesn’t respond asap, so I need him to f—ing respond and if I have to apply public pressure then I guess that’s where we are at,” she alleged.
Shivon Zilis
Musk and Zillis welcomed twins Strider and Azure in November 2021. Bloomberg reported in June 2024 that the pair recently welcomed a third child together.
Zillis has remained somewhat quiet about her kids and her relationship with Musk. However, in Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography about the Tesla founder, she said, “He really wants smart people to have kids. Zillis said that Musk offered to be her sperm donor so her children “would be genetically his.”
As of February 2025, Zillis appeared to be in good standing with Musk. She posted a photo with their twins on Valentine’s Day, writing via X, “Lil loves of my life.” Musk commented on the post with a smiley face with hearts emoji.
Ashley St. Clair
St. Clair surprised fans in February 2025 after she announced via X that she allegedly gave birth to Musk’s 13th child, their first together.
“I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father,” the author alleged. “I have not previously disclosed this to protect our child’s privacy and safety, but in recent days it has become clear that tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause.”
She continued, “I intend to allow our child to grow in a normal and safe environment. For that reason, I ask that the media honor our child’s privacy, and refrain from invasive reporting.”
Despite her allegations of being silenced by Musk, her representative claimed via a statement on X that St. Clair and Musk “have been privately working towards the creation of an agreement about raising their child for some time.”
The February 2025 statement continued: “We are waiting for Elon to publicly acknowledge his parental role with Ashley, to end unwarranted speculation, and Ashley trusts that Elon intends to finish their agreement quickly, in the best interests of the wellbeing and security of the child they share.”
Musk has yet to publicly acknowledge St. Clair’s child as his own.
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