Elon Musk's Exes Carry New Documentary's Sharpest Testimony

Wired reviewed Alex Gibney's documentary "Musk," a nearly four-hour film that opens in theaters Oct. 16 and screens next month at the WIRED World Fair in Miami. The review says most of its story is familiar to anyone who has followed Musk's career, but the testimony from two women who had children with him cuts deepest.

A post on X

Before the film's release, Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and the mother of four of Musk's 14 known children, posted on X that Musk had unfollowed her. "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," she wrote. She said she hopes they can still be friends and coparents. Wired reports that it is unclear whether she remains director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, though she does not appear to have left the position.

Justine Wilson's account

Wilson, Musk's ex-wife, is one of the most important critical voices in the film, Wired reports. She reflects on the death of their first child from a SIDS-related condition. Musk once posted that he held their infant son as he died. Wilson's reply, quoted in the film: "not that it matters to anyone except me, because it is one of the most sacred and defining moments of my life, but I was the one who was holding him."

She also addresses Musk's repeated claim that their transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, was "killed by the woke mind virus," and calls that unconscionable given the loss they shared. Musk tells Gibney that after saying he would "always love" Wilson, he cut off their daughter's health insurance and has never tried to repair the relationship.

In recounting the marriage, Wilson says Musk was constantly remarking on ways he found her lacking. When she reminded him she was his spouse and not an employee, he told her, "If you were my employee, I would fire you." She says she learned the term gaslighting through her relationship with Elon.

Ashley St. Clair's claims

St. Clair, a former conservative influencer, says she rejected a $40 million nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from talking about her relationship with Musk. She describes the affair as a temporary illusion of compatibility that led to a messy custody battle, and says Musk lost interest once she was pregnant. She also claims he sought to father children with other women. Wired cites The Wall Street Journal's report that Musk messaged cryptocurrency influencer Tiffany Fong with an offer to give her a child. Musk did not immediately return a request for comment; Fong declined to comment publicly except to say she had asked not to be included.

"It's like a Gatling gun of sperm in his DMs," St. Clair says in the film.

Both St. Clair and Wilson voice discomfort over Musk's views on birth rates and his ambition to father a "legion" of children. Wilson claims he regarded the mothers of his children as replaceable "breeders." St. Clair also alleges that Musk reduced his financial support for their son Romulus in retaliation. When asked whether she ever saw Musk use illegal drugs, she answered, "I'm not at liberty to say."

The larger film

Gibney's documentary covers Musk's Mars ambitions, the corporate colonization of Texas, fatal crashes involving "self-driving" Teslas, and the dismantling of USAID by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. WIRED's reporting is cited in the film, which includes interviews with global editorial director Katie Drummond and contributing editor Zoë Schiffer.

Wired's review concludes that Musk cannot buy the silence of everyone he has known, and that the women who have shared his orbit may be the ones who finally puncture his image as a genius inventor-king.

• Alex Gibney
• Ashley St. Clair
• Elon Musk
• Justine Wilson
• Neuralink
• Shivon Zilis