Key Takeaways
- Shivon Zilis said Elon Musk abruptly ended their five-year relationship, writing that she went from “in love to let go in a week with no warning.”
- Zilis shared affectionate texts with Musk and said she hopes they remain friends and coparents, while Ashley St. Clair mocked the split and accused Zilis of helping hurt her family.
- Musk has not publicly addressed the breakup, which adds to scrutiny of his relationships with the four women who share his 14 publicly known children.
Brush off Tinder, fire up Hinge, and alert the greater Austin metropolitan area: Elon Musk and Shivon Zilis are no longer together—and the mother of four of his children says she barely had time to see the breakup coming.
“It’s hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that’s just how it is sometimes,” Zilis announced on X, ending a relationship of more than five years with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire.
Then she posted the texts.
A screenshot shared by Zilis shows her telling Musk after breakfast on Sept. 24, “Love you very much.”
“Love you too,” Musk responded.
Musk also told her he hadn't realized he could have invited her to a White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Days later, Zilis posted, “New day, new life.” Then came the breakup announcement.
Zilis didn't leave angry—at least publicly.
“I’ve loved him more than life itself,” she wrote, describing the home she created with their four children as Musk's “safe space” away from his “otherwise militant existence.” She said she hoped they could remain friends and coparents and signed off: “God speed, Elon, the world is lucky to have you.”
Musk’s ex, Ashley St. Clair, reacted somewhat differently.
“Girl...........” St. Clair wrote on her Instagram Stories while reposting Zilis's announcement.
St. Clair, who shares son Romulus with Musk, followed up after Zilis posted their private texts: “You were warned girl. Hit me up, sister wife!”
Then it got uglier.
St. Clair accused Zilis of playing a role in “hurting my family,” while also claiming Zilis had been isolated during her relationship with Musk. In another post directed at Zilis, she wrote, “U got played girl.”
St. Clair also alleged that Musk spent significant time at her home while involved with Zilis.
But Zilis's breakup is only the latest chapter in Musk's complicated history with the women who have had his children.
His first wife, Justine Wilson, recently unloaded about their eight-year marriage in Alex Gibney's documentary Musk. Wilson claims Musk told her, “I am the alpha in this relationship,” while they danced at their 2000 wedding and says he routinely criticized her afterward.
“I learned the term ‘gaslighting’ through my relationship with Elon,” Wilson said in the film.
Wilson later made an even more startling allegation about how Musk views the women who have his children: “The breeders are interchangeable.”
Musk and Wilson had six children together, including Nevada, who died in infancy.
Then came Grimes. The musician and Musk had three children together before their relationship ended and a bitter custody dispute followed. Grimes has also publicly complained about difficulties reaching Musk concerning their children's medical needs and pleaded with him online to respond to an urgent situation involving one of them.
And then there's St. Clair.
She claims Musk told her they needed “a legion of children before the civil war.” Previously reported messages also allegedly show Musk telling her, “To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates.”
St. Clair also claims she rejected a $40 million agreement that would have required her to remain silent about their relationship. She later participated in Gibney's documentary.
Now Zilis—the Neuralink executive who shares twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia, and son Seldon Lycurgus with Musk—is the latest mother of his children publicly discussing the end of their relationship.
The split leaves Musk with 14 publicly known children fathered with four women: Wilson, Grimes, Zilis and St. Clair.
Musk has not publicly addressed Zilis's announcement, and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment from People about the breakup.
Zilis, for her part, appears determined to keep things peaceful. “I’m hurting, but care deeply about E and will always be cheering for his happiness,” she wrote.
St. Clair apparently isn't volunteering for the peacekeeping committee: “Hit me up, sister wife!”
