Elon Musk repeatedly makes headlines for his astronomical wealth, feuds with fellow CEOs, controversial X updates, and Donald Trump endorsements – but his family life is also pretty intriguing.
The Tesla founder, 54, has welcomed children with four different women over the last two decades. However, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal in 2025 that the ‘true number of [his] children is much higher than publicly known’.
His foray into fatherhood began in 2002, when he and his Canadian author wife Justine Wilson welcomed son Nevada Alexander. Sadly, at just 10 weeks old, Musk’s firstborn died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Since then, tech billionaire Musk has continued expanding his brood and has been open about his views on procreation, claiming that falling birth rates pose a grave risk to humanity.
While he hasn’t revealed many details about his offspring, the prominent pronatalist has praised his contribution to ‘the underpopulation crisis’ while encouraging others to have more kids.
‘A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far,’ he wrote on X in 2022.
How many children does Elon Musk have?
In total, Musk has 14 children that we know of.
During his first marriage to Wilson, 53, from 2000 to 2008, he welcomed six children. They used IVF to conceive following Nevada’s death.
In 2004, the former couple had twins Griffin and Vivian, and in 2006, they had triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian.
Following his divorce from Wilson, Musk had a child with singer Grimes (real name Claire Elise Boucher), whom he started dating in 2018.
They caused quite a stir in 2020 when they named their baby boy X Æ A-12, which was later formally changed to AE A-XII, where XII is 12 in Roman numerals, since California does not accept Greek combo letters or numerals in names.
Continuing the theme of ensuring their children would have the most unique names in their class, Grimes revealed in December 2021 that she and Musk had welcomed daughter Exa Dark Sideræl via surrogate.
Exa got the nickname Y, as XAE A-XII had been given the nickname X.
More twins followed in November 2021, when Musk welcomed a boy and a girl, Strider and Azure, with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis.
The same week the twins’ births were announced, things got extra complicated when it was revealed that Musk had a third child with Grimes – a boy named Techno Mechanicus, who has been nicknamed Tau.
Back to Zilis, Musk had his 12th child with her in February 2024. The baby girl is named Arcadia.
Lucky number 13 was son Romulus, born to Musk and conservative journalist Ashley St. Clair.
She wrote on X in February 2025: ‘Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father.’
Finally, Zilis confirmed that she and Musk had a fourth child.
His birthdate was not revealed, only adding to the baffling nature of the whole timeline, but we do know that he is called Seldon Lycurgus, and he’s Musk’s 14th kid.
What have his children said about him?
The parent-child relationship to attract the most attention in the Musk clan is that between him and Vivian, who came out as transgender in 2022.
Having filed a request to take her mother’s surname, she changed her name in full to Vivian Jenna Wilson, stating: ‘I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form.’
The 22-year-old model, who boasts one million Instagram followers, then received praise this week for how she responded to an interviewer in a now-viral red carpet moment.
Attending a 40th-anniversary event for Spanish brand Desigual, a reporter said to Vivian: ‘Your father’s the best, no?’
‘My, what? Sorry?’, she replied, her expression falling, to which the man repeated: ‘The best, your father.’
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Taken aback and clearly irritated, Vivian simply said, ‘OK’ and walked off.
Musk has been criticised for his anti-trans comments about Vivian, having deadnamed her publicly and saying she’s been ‘killed’ by the ‘woke mind virus’.
Asked in March last year if she ever feels ‘scared’ of Musk, the world’s richest man, she told Teen Vogue defiantly: ‘He’s a pathetic manchild. Why would I feel scared of him?
‘”Ohhh, he has so much power!” Nah, nah, nah. I don’t give a f**k. Why should I be scared of this man? Because he’s rich? Oh, no, I’m trembling. Ooh, shivering in my boots here. I don’t give a f**k how much money anyone has. I don’t. I really don’t. He owns Twitter. OK. Congratulations.’
Elon Musk’s children in order of birth
- Nevada Alexander Musk (born 2002, died aged 10 weeks)
- Griffin and Vivian Musk (born April 2004)
- Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk (born 2006)
- X AE A-XII Musk (born May 2020)
- Strider and Azure Musk (born November 2021)
- Exa Dark Sideræl Musk (born December 2021)
- Techno Mechanicus (birthdate unknown)
- Arcadia (born February 2024)
- Romulus (born September 2024)
- Seldon Lycurgus (birthdate unknown)
‘People thrive off of fear. I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind,’ she stated proudly. ‘The only thing that gets to live free in my mind are drag queens.’
When it comes to the rest of Musk’s children, he’s said it’s ‘impossible’ to spend time with all of them.
Speaking on the WTF Is podcast hosted by Nikhil Kamath, Musk quipped that he already has an ‘army’ of kids.
‘I have some older kids that are adults, essentially, then a bunch of younger kids.
‘I definitely have my hands full right now. I do want to be able to spend some time with my kids. Right before coming here, I was with my kids, seeing them before bedtime, that kind of thing.’
‘Beyond a certain number, it’s like, kind of impossible to spend time with them,’ he added.
He said his older children are ‘very independent’, so he sees his sons ‘once in a while’.
‘I can only have enough kids on the young side where it’s humanly possible to spend time with them.’
Despite this, he remains ‘worried about the population decline’ and is ‘not opposed’ to welcoming more via adoption.
Who are Elon Musk’s parents?
Given the chaos of fathering 14 children, it will come as no shock to learn that Musk has a complex past with his own parents.
The businessman, who is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, was born in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, to mother Maye and father Errol.
Maye, 78, is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa, meaning Musk has held both South African and Canadian citizenship since birth.
Errol, 80, the patriarch of the Musk family, is a successful South African businessman and politician.
Is Elon Musk the richest man in the world?
After Tesla’s stock began to pop in 2013, Musk’s wealth has been on the incline, and he surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s wealthiest person in 2021.
The SpaceX CEO is now poised to sail past the $1trillion mark, with his current net worth sitting at well over $800billion.
While he has remained close with his mother long into adulthood, Musk distanced himself from his father when he moved to Canada for university aged 17. He has described his father as emotionally abusive.
In 2023, The New York Times published an investigation in which Errol was accused of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren in California and South Africa from 1993, leading to three separate police investigations.
Errol said the reports are ‘false and nonsense in the extreme’, saying relatives were ‘putting the children up to say false things’ for money.
Musk’s estranged father has stayed largely out of the public eye in recent years, despite his profile. He is reported to have at least two other stepchildren, plus daughters Tosca, Alexandra, and Asha Rose Musk and son Kimbal.
Is Elon Musk currently married?
Musk has been married twice, firstly to Wilson and then to English actress Talulah Riley. Although technically you could class it as three marriages, as he and Riley wed in 2010, then divorced, and remarried before their second divorce was finalised in 2016.
As of now, he is not known to be married.
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