Vivian Wilson, the estranged daughter of Elon Musk, cut an interview short after a reporter praised her billionaire father.
The 22-year-old model and transgender rights activist was attending a Desigual Vintage event in Ibiza earlier this week, when a journalist approached her on the red carpet.
The exchange, which has since been shared online, sees the reporter asking Vivian, ‘Your father the best, no?’
At first, the model appears to have misheard the question, as she politely replies: ‘My what? Sorry?’
However, after the interviewer repeats the sentence, saying, ‘The best, your father,’ Vivian’s demeanour and attitude immediately change.
Quickly, she goes from smiling to being visibly shocked, before snapping ‘Okay’ and walking away from the situation.
It’s no secret that Vivian has disowned her father, who just so happens to be the richest man in the world, worth a staggering $826.1 billion (and on track to become the world’s first trillionaire).
Elon welcomed Vivian and her twin brother, Grififn, with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, in April 2004.
In 2022, at 18-years-old, Vivian filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court to legally change her name and gender.
She cited the reason as ‘gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.’
Vivian responded to the people attacking her identity — including Elon — by saying: ‘I am an adult. I am 20 years old. I am not a child. My life should be defined by my own choices.’
Two years later, in an interview with Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, who is often described as conservative, Elon claimed Vivian was ‘killed’ by the ‘woke mind virus’ after he was ‘tricked’ into signing transition documents.
The X owner called the gender-reassignment surgery ‘child mutilation and sterilisation,’ and referred to Vivian by her deadname. This is the birth name or former name of a transgender or non-binary person who has chosen a different name to align with their gender identity.
Elon continued: ‘This was really before I had any understanding of what was going on, and we had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion and I was told [Vivian] might commit suicide’ should she not receive the care she needed.
‘I lost my son. They call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it’s called deadnaming is because your son is dead. So my son is dead, killed by the woke mind virus,’ the Tesla CEO added.
In a cover interview for Cosmopolitan UK in April this year, Vivian reflected on this personal moment, which was made public.
She said: ‘Then two years later, this guy [Elon] on a podcast called me dead and I was not having it. So I made a response on Threads (ironically, Meta’s rival to X) and it went mega viral. Everything took off from there.’
In 2024, the same year that Elon deadnamed Vivian, she appeared on NBC News for an exclusive interview. During the chat, she branded the tech mogul as ‘narcissistic,’ and said that he was an absent, ‘cold’ father who was ‘very quick to anger.’
Vivian also said Elon was ‘cruel’ and that he was ‘constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high.’
‘He was cold. He was there, I want to say, maybe 10 percent of the time,’ she added. ‘That’s generous. He had half custody, and he fully was not there. It was just a fact of life at the time, so I don’t think I realised just how abnormal of an experience it was.’
After the Ibiza interview clip was posted online, plenty of people rushed to Vivian’s defence.
‘Why ask her about her personal life when they know it’s an uncomfortable topic for her? Just stop harassing the poor woman and let her live her life on her own terms,’ one person said.
Another echoed: ‘Good for her… standing on her own in confidence knowing exactly who she is. That’s beautiful and incredibly strong.’