Maybe it's time for Elon Musk and Nick Cannon, both dads of twelve, to meet — or not.
Over the weekend, the controversial billionaire confirmed that he had welcomed his 12th child earlier this year, his third with one of his Neuralink Corp. employees, Shivon Zilis. News came shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that a former SpaceX employee had to reject multiple alleged requests from the Tesla founder "to have his babies" during her time working for him.
The X owner's affinity for having a big family is no secret; in 2022, after it was revealed he had privately welcomed his first children with Shivon, he tweeted: "Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."
And though news of his 12th baby — whose name or sex have not been disclosed — nonetheless came as a surprise to many, he maintained to Page Six that he didn't "secretly" welcome them. "As for 'secretly fathered,' that is also false," he said, noting: "All our friends and family know. Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean 'secret.'"
Below, catch up on who Elon has fathered his 12 children with, from his first wife, to singer Grimes.
Justine Wilson
Elon married his first wife, a Canadian author, in 2000, after they met while studying at Queen's College, and they divorced in 2008. In their time together, they welcomed six kids, including their first son Nevada Alexander, who was born in 2002, however he passed away from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) when he was ten weeks old.
After Nevada, in 2004, the former couple welcomed twins Vivian and Griffin, via IVF, and later in 2006 triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, also via IVF.
All of the Musk children have been largely kept away from the spotlight and little is known about their personal lives, however it is well documented that Vivian, who came out as transgender in June 2022, is estranged from her father and uses her mother's last name instead.
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Justine, 51, has similarly continued to lead a private life since her split from Elon, though per her author bio from Simon & Schuster, she lives in Los Angeles with a husband and "young twin sons" — though it's otherwise unclear if she's had other children — and is still an active blogger on LiveJournal under the user name moschus.
Grimes
Though Elon was once again married (twice) to actress Tallulah Riley, who recently married Thomas Brodie-Sangster, they did not have children together. He next had kids with Grimes, 36, a Canadian musician known for hits such as "Oblivion" and "Genesis."
The two began an on-and-off relationship in 2018, and made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala that year. They welcomed son X Æ A-Xii in May of 2020, followed by daughter Exa Dark Sideræl, also referred to as Y, who was born via surrogate in December 2021 — weeks after Elon welcomed his twins with Shivon — plus another son, Techno Mechanicus (nicknamed Tau), born June 2022.
Elon and Grimes' relationship has been complicated. Last year, the singer, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, filed a "petition to establish parental relationship" of her children in a California court, records obtained by Page Six showed at the time.
The filing, which didn't broach the topic of custody or child support, came shortly after the existence of Elon's twins with Shivon was made public, after which Grimes wrote in a since-deleted tweet: "Tell Shivon to unblock me and tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer," adding: "I have never even been allowed to see a photo of these children until this moment, despite the situation utterly ripping my family apart."
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Days later, she followed up with: "I spoke with Shivon at length finally, which was long overdue. This wasn't her fault, plz don't be angry at her!"
Shivon Zilis
Shivon, 38, is also from Canada, and works as a Director of Operations and Special Projects for Elon's brain implant chip company, Neuralink. She keeps her personal life largely private, though a note on her website announces that she "left the venture world for the startup world" sometime after 2016.
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Per her LinkedIn, she graduated from Yale University, and worked for IBM and Bloomberg Ventures, among other companies, before joining Tesla in 2017, the same year she started working for Neuralink.
She and Elon's twins, son Strider and daughter Azure, were born in Austin, Texas, where both of them are based, in November of 2021, and their third child was born earlier this year.