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Elon Musk quietly welcomed third child with Neuralink exec Shivon Zilis earlier this year making him dad of at least 12
BILLIONAIRE tech mogul Elon Musk has had a third child with colleague Shivon Zilis, the 12th child he has fathered.
Musk and Zilis — who has worked at several of Musk's tech companies and is currently the Director of Special Projects at his brain implant company Neuralink — welcomed the newborn earlier this year.
Musk confirmed he'd had a third child with Zilis but dismissed reports it had been kept secret.
“As for ‘secretly fathered,’ that is also false,” he told Page Six. “All our friends and family know. Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean ‘secret.'”
The child, whose name has not been made public, was born less than two years after the couple's twins, who joined the family in 2022 and first reported by Bloomberg.
Musk has celebrated the births of at least 12 children with three women since first becoming a father in 2002.
He had his first six children with his then-wife, Justine Wilson, who he met at college.
The couple's firstborn child, Nevada Alexander Musk, tragically died at only 10 weeks old due to sudden infant death syndrome in 2002.
Wilson and Musk went on to have a set of twins, Griffin and Vivian Musk, in 2004, and triplets — Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk, in 2006.
After divorcing from Wilson, the Tesla founder eventually began dating Canadian pop singer Grimes.
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Together the couple have three children, including a son named X AE A-XII Musk, born in 2020, and a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, born in 2021.
The couple's third child, son Techno Mechanicus Musk, was revealed by the SpaceX founder's biographer last year.
Musk began planning a family with his subordinate and long-time friend, Zilis, around the same time.
He secretly had a set of twins with Zilis in 2022, before welcoming their third child this year.
Zilis reportedly told friends that the twins were conceived via in-vitro fertilization.
The 2024 addition to Musk's nontraditional family brings his total number of living children to 11, ranging in age from just a few months old to about 20.
COMBATTING GLOBAL DE-POPULATION?
Musk has said that he is happy to have several children and believes that it is how he can do his part to combat the alleged global phenomenon of de-population.
“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter that Musk purchased at a loss in late 2022.
"A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far," he added.
But Musk's claim has been debunked by scientists again and again – the global population is not decreasing.
The UN expects the world population to surpass 10 billion people by 2100.
Often deemed the world's richest man, Musk doubled down on the theory in another X post on Thursday.
"Civilization may end with a bang or with a whimper (in adult diapers)," he wrote alongside a chart about Europe's fertility crisis.
How many children does Musk have?
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Tech billionare Elon Musk currently has at least 11 living children with three women.
Children with then-wife Justine Wilson:
- 2002 — Nevada Alexander Musk (deceased)
- 2004 — Twins Griffin and Vivian Musk
- 2006 — Triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk
Children with Canadian pop star Grimes:
- 2020 — X AE A-XII Musk
- 2021 — Exa Dark Sideræl Musk
- 2023 — Techno Mechanicus Musk
Children with Neuralink colleague Shivon Zilis:
- 2022 — Twins (names unknown)
- 2024 — Third child (name unknown)
ANOTHER EX MOVES ON
Musk was also married to English actress Talulah Riley — twice — but the couple never had children.
The two first tied the knot in 2010, lasting two years, before giving it a go for a second time in 2013 for three years.
But it looks like the Pride & Prejudice star has definitively moved on from her old flame.
Riley shared nuptials with Love Actually heartthrob Thomas Brodie-Sangster in a beautiful church ceremony on Sunday.
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The bride wore a white dress and lace veil to marry the Game of Thrones icon at Thomas at St George’s Church in the United Kingdom.
The pair got engaged in July last year, and Musk even shared his well wishes for the couple in a post on X.