Exactly how many kids does Elon Musk have?

There are a lot of things that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is concerned about. Other than building a future where self-driven cars will be the norm rather than the exception, and striving to put humans on Mars, Musk is also concerned about the dwindling population on Earth and the civilisation crumbling. Staying true to his belief of putting his money where his mouth is, he’s doing his bit rather well, to keep up the human population.

The latest report by Business Insider revealed that Elon Musk is actually a father to nine children, instead of being a father to seven children as known before. As of 2021, Elon Musk’s brood grew to nine and is perhaps still growing as I write this article. 

According to the report, Elon Musk welcomed twin babies in November 2021 with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at one of his companies, Neuralink. Business Insider said that Musk and Zilis had filed a petition in a court in Texas, US to change the name of their twins to include both ‘Musk’ and ‘Zilis’ in their names. The documents list Elon Musk as the father and Shivon Zilis as the mother. So far, Elon Musk, Shivon Zilis or any of his companies have not commented on the report. 

Elon Musk’s twins with Zilis also came just weeks before the billionaire welcomed a baby girl with his former girlfriend and Canadian singer Grimes (real name: Claire Boucher) via surrogacy in December 2021. But in September 2021, Grimes and Musk had announced being 'semi-separated'. Then during the announcement of their second child in December, the singer had referred to Elon Musk as her ‘boyfriend’, only to announce a few days later that the two had broken up again. 

Elon Musk’s family tree was already large before he became famous; now his family is only growing. So exactly, how many children does Elon Musk have (as far as we know)? 

Here is a complete list of children fathered by Elon Musk so far: 

With Justine Wilson: 6 children - Nevada Alexander, Griffin, Xavier, Kai, Damian and Saxon  

Elon Musk has technically fathered 10 children so far. With his first wife and author Justine Wilson, he had six children. However, their first child, Nevada Alexander Musk, died just 10 weeks into infancy. Nevada Musk was born to the couple in 2002. Justine Wilson famously wrote about dealing with the loss of a child, being married to Musk and her divorce in an article for Marie Claire. 

In 2004, Elon Musk welcomed twin boys Griffin and Xavier with Justine Wilson, through IVF. Famously, Xavier Musk, only recently applied for a name change to Vivian Jenna Wilson, coming out as a trans person and also cutting all legal ties with her biological father Elon Musk for his anti-trans comments. Vivian's announcement came around this year's Father's day. 

I love all my kids so much

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2022

Musk and Wilson welcomed three more children, triplets – Kail, Saxon and Damian – through IVF once again, in 2006. Elon Musk and Justine Wilson divorced in 2008 and share the custody of their (now) four children. 

With Grimes: 2 children - X AE A-XII and Exa Dark Sideræl Musk

In 2020, Elon Musk and his then-girlfriend Grimes welcomed their first child together. Their son X AE A-XII Musk was originally named X Æ A-12, but his name had to be changed as California law did not accept the words ‘Æ’ and ‘12’ for not being part of the English alphabet. 

Elon Musk had another child, a daughter, with Grimes in December 2021 via surrogacy. Grimes only revealed details about her second child with Musk in March 2022. Their second child is named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk and nicknamed ‘Y’.

With Shivon Zilis: 2 children - twins 

Just weeks before Musk and Grimes welcomed their daughter in December 2021, the billionaire had secretly welcomed twins with Neuralin’s top executive Shivon Zilis. Their names remain unknown so far. 

Elon Musk was also married – twice – to actor Talulah Riley, but the couple never had children together according to public knowledge.