{"id":114274,"date":"2023-09-28T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=114274"},"modified":"2023-10-02T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T19:54:31","slug":"children-of-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/children-of-elon-musk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Children of Elon Musk: From Estranged to Inseparable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How many children does Elon Musk have? Why is he motivated to have so many?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renowned biographer Walter Isaacson shadowed Elon Musk for two years, gaining access to his thoughts and those of the people closest to him. Isaacson found that one child is nearly inseparable from Musk while another wants nothing to do with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn about the children of Elon Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Children of Elon Musk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In total, as of this book\u2019s publication, the children of Elon Musk number 11. Six are with his first wife, Justine Musk, three are with his partner Grimes, and two are with business executive Shivon Zilis for whom he served as a genetic donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk’s first child, Nevada, died in 2002 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. His first child with Grimes\u2014a boy named X\u2014was born in 2020 and was almost inseparable from Musk during the time that Isaacson spent with him. According to Isaacson, Musk is very vocal about the need to keep population numbers up to preserve human consciousness<\/a> in the face of growing artificial intelligence and that he\u2019s just doing his part to maintain the species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Isaacson doesn\u2019t present the counterpoint to Musk\u2019s fears\u2014namely, that population growth is unsustainable. In Thank You for Being Late<\/em><\/a>, Thomas Friedman explains that population growth is a driver of climate change and poverty, as more and more people consume even more resources while the global economy can\u2019t provide enough jobs<\/a> to keep up with demand. In Apocalypse Never<\/em><\/a>, Michael Shellenberger offers the optimistic prospect that advances in energy technology, such as those that Musk is working on, will allow populations to urbanize, stabilize, and hopefully recede<\/a> to a healthy, sustainable level. Whether Musk would see that as a good thing is questionable, given how Isaacson frames Musk\u2019s population fears.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only child with whom Musk\u2019s relationship is strained is his transgender daughter Jenna, who Isaacson reports has disavowed her connection with Musk due to her perception of his anti-transgender views and because of her anti-capitalist political beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Jenna legally changed her name and gender<\/a> in June 2022, when she also took her mother\u2019s maiden name Wilson to further disassociate herself from her father. Jenna\u2019s mother, Justine, came out in support of her daughter\u2019s transition<\/a> on Twitter shortly after. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans support transgender rights<\/a>, especially those in younger demographics. Likewise, polls show that Millennials and Jenna\u2019s cohort, Gen Z<\/a>, hold increasingly negative views of capitalism<\/a>, more so than those of Musk’s generation and before.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many children does Elon Musk have? Why is he motivated to have so many? Renowned biographer Walter Isaacson shadowed Elon Musk for two years, gaining access to his thoughts and those of the people closest to him. Isaacson found that one child is nearly inseparable from Musk while another wants nothing to do with him. Read more to learn about the children of Elon Musk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":65544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1277],"class_list":["post-114274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-elon-musk-2","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Children of Elon Musk: From Estranged to Inseparable - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One child is nearly inseparable from him while another wants nothing to do with him. 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