Tragic Details About Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter Vivian

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Whatever your political affiliation or preference in car manufacturers, there's one thing most people can probably agree on: Elon Musk is quite the controversial figure. From his contentious purchase of Twitter and subsequent rebranding to his involvement with Donald Trump, it's no wonder much of the world has strong feelings about the businessman. Unsurprisingly, given that he has 14 known children as of this publication, some of the former PayPal executive's kids have begun gaining their own reputations, including Musk's daughter Vivian Wilson.

Not only is she one of his eldest kids, next to her twin brother Griffin, but she's also become Musk's most outspoken child. Through her Threads posts, Wilson has made her feelings about her estranged father clear a number of times, including one in which she referred to Musk as "pathetic" and "stupid." As she wrote, "You are not a family man, you are a serial adulterer who won't stop f***ing lying about your own children."

Another point of contention for the father and daughter is that Wilson is trans, which Musk has used to villify her. While there are many LGBTQIA+ members who have dealt with unsupportive family members, her case is especially devastating as much of their feud has played out in the public sphere, with Musk vehemently opposing everything his daughter stands for. From her struggles growing up to her many issues with the businessman, here are the tragic details about Elon Musk's estranged daughter, Vivian Wilson.

It can't be easy to grow up and feel different from how others perceive you should be. For Vivian Wilson, she's felt that pressure from a very young age from her father, Elon Musk. She's claimed that the Tesla CEO used selective in vitro fertilization (IVF) to ensure she would be born a boy. Many believe he went on to do the same thing several more times, too, as he's had two more daughters and nine sons primarily through the use of IVF. With this in mind, it's easy to imagine the criticism Wilson faced from her father when she acted too girly.

Musk took to X in July 2024 to write that his child may have been homosexual and on the autism spectrum. While deadnaming Wilson, the businessman recalled her interest in musicals and clothes, from the age 4, but insisted that his child was not female.

In response, Wilson told NBC News at the time about Musk's parenting. "He was cold. He's very quick to anger," she said. "He is uncaring and narcissistic." The social media personality said that her dad was far from involved in her life, but when he was, Musk would harass her. "I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip ... and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high," Wilson recalled. "It was cruel."

Elon Musk's dating history is complex, and he's fathered children with four known women as of this publication. The first of those women was Justine Wilson, who he married in 2000. As romantic as the businessman may have seemed, she had to admit to herself that there were a number of red flags she ignored at the time. "I was a starter wife," Justine claimed in her Marie Claire article in September 2010. She detailed how Musk referred to himself as the "alpha" in their relationship at their wedding and that he would often critique her. Two years after tying the knot, they welcomed their first child, Nevada, to the world, but he tragically died at just 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Almost immediately, Justine underwent IVF and had twins Griffin and Vivian Wilson, then triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian. Over the years, she felt defeated by her husband and did all she could to please him, including bleaching her hair blonde. In 2008, when Vivian would've been about 4, Musk filed for divorce. "I felt numb, but strangely relieved," Justine wrote.

Growing up with divorced parents can leave an impact on any child, but it undoubtedly played into Vivian's decision to become estranged from her father. In a July 2024 Threads post, she wrote, "He doesn't know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn't there." Within six weeks of the divorce, Musk was engaged to Talulah Riley, his second wife.

Many of Elon Musk's children have endured tragedy in some form, but Vivian Wilson has far and away been the most vocal about what she's dealt with. For instance, as many can probably relate, she experienced difficulty with her mental health before coming out to her mom as trans in 2020. In speaking with Teen Vogue in March 2025, Wilson recounted the night where she felt everything had begun to crumble.

"I was like, 'I cannot f***nig do this anymore,'" she said. "That was the point where puberty was really picking up and everything in my life was completely falling apart." Wilson detailed having "mental breakdowns" at school and not wanting to do anything but "rot." Having been certain of her gender identity for a couple months at this point, she knew she had to do something about it. "It was like ... 'If I stay in the closet anymore, this is going to take me down a very destructive path,'" Wilson recalled thinking at the time. So, she made a post on her Instagram story — something she later said she regretted doing, because it took her another two days to tell her mom.

Fortunately, Justine was incredibly supportive of her daughter and, according to Wilson, she didn't seem very surprised by her coming out. On the other hand, though, Musk made his dissenting opinion about Wilson's identity clear, and very publicly, too.

Under California law as of this publication, minors are required to get parental consent to begin receiving gender-affirming care. Vivian Wilson was just 16 when she began exploring treatment options, and while her mom was fully supportive, she had to deal with a roadblock: Elon Musk. During a July 2024 interview with conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, the CEO alleged, "I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys." Musk went on to deadname his daughter yet again before admonishing those who supply gender-affirming care to minors.

During her NBC News interview, she told her own side of the story, saying that, after texting with Musk about her wish to begin receiving treatment. Although Wilson had wanted to avoid her father, which the pandemic had predominantly allowed her to do, they finally met in person to discuss it. "At that point, it was very clear that we both had a very distinct disdain for each other," she said. Still, Wilson gave Musk the medical forms, which he read twice before signing them on his own accord, she claimed. Wilson insisted, "He was not by any means tricked. He knew the full side effects." Regardless of the way it came about, Musk signed his name, which allowed the social media personality to begin using puberty blockers before eventually switching to hormone-replacement therapy. As Wilson put it, receiving gender-affirming care "definitely allowed me to thrive."

There's a number of strange things about Elon Musk that everyone seems to ignore, but Vivian Wilson hasn't been afraid to shine a light on her dad. She's made headlines a number of times for putting the entrepreneur on blast, calling him out for everything from his political views to his parenting skills. It's clear Wilson and Musk have very little in common, and since she came out in 2020, she's been working to distance herself from him.

During her conversation with Teen Vogue, the social media personality explained that she hasn't been financially dependent on Musk since she was 16. Two years later, she petitioned to have her name and gender legally changed, citing, "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form" (via NBC News).

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the estrangement between Wilson and Musk, too. While speaking with YouTuber Hasan Piker during a March 2025 interview, she revealed one of the last times her dad ever spoke to her was in the form of a tasteless message. Wilson had suggested Musk wear a face covering because of the virus, and in response, she said, "He sent me this GIF of a sheep and said, 'Stop being sheeple.' It was cringe." Despite being estranged, though, both Wilson and Musk still take jabs at one another publicly.

Tragically, having an unsupportive family member isn't a special case for many members of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, what is unique about Vivian Wilson's situation is that her father has over 200 million followers on X and has used his platform to both spread harmful misinformation about trans people and specifically call out his daughter in his online tirades.

During his July 2024 conversation with Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk claimed that his "son" (referring to his daughter Wilson) was "dead — killed by the woke mind virus." It's one thing to deadname his child, but it's an entirely different level of separation to proclaim Wilson as dead, and he faced a horde of criticism for it.

While there isn't a ton of information about all of the businessman's kids, what we do know about Musk's children is that they're safer from his admonishment when they're on his side of things. Fortunately, Wilson has wasted zero time defending herself from her dad's unkind statements and has an ever-growing audience on Threads of over 230,000 followers herself. In her post, following Musk's interview, she wrote, "I'm legally recognized as a woman in the state of California and I don't concern myself with the opinions of those who are below me."

It's hard to imagine, but the internet may be more familiar with all of Elon Musk's children than his own first-born daughter is. Of course, Vivian Wilson grew up with four of her siblings, as she told Teen Vogue in March 2025, "I'm tied for oldest. ... I have four siblings. We're going to leave it at that, honey." Her mom Justine raised her, as well as her twin brother and her three younger brothers, but sadly, the rest of her dad's kids are something of a mystery. "I do not actually know how many siblings I have, if you include half-siblings," she told Teen Vogue.

Wilson learned of her dad's second child with Grimes, as well as his kids with Ashley St. Clair and Sivon Zilis, through the internet. "If I had a nickel for every time I found out I had half-siblings through Reddit, I'd have two nickels," she joked.

All of his controversies aside, Elon Musk has established himself as an industry leader and amassed an impressive fortune through his many technological investments and innovations. It goes without saying that many people would be interested in learning more about where he came from and his path to success. Enter: "Elon Musk," Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography about the CEO. He had also written a number of other biographies about influential figures like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, but it was this book that seemed to rub some people the wrong way — in particular, Vivian Wilson.

In an August 2024 Threads post, she highlighted a number of issues she had with Isaacson's biography about her father, which featured her prominently. "To Walter Isaacson, you threw me to the wolves in what was one of the most humiliating experiences of my entire life," Wilson wrote, calling the book a "puff-piece." The social media personality insisted the author "portrayed [her] in a light that is genuinely defamatory," explaining that she was deadnamed and misgendered by Isaacson, and that he spun an anti-transgender narrative.

On top of it all, Wilson said that she hadn't been contacted by the author to provide her side of things and didn't even know the biography was in the works until shortly before its release. "That memory of sobbing my eyes out in a dormitory worrying that I didn't have a future because of the damage this thing did to my reputation will forever stay with me," she added.