Of Elon Musk’s many baby mamas, it’s Shivon Zilis, mom to four of his kids, who’s snagged the golden ticket. The Neuralink exec is said to enjoy “special status,” according to a bombshell report.
The world’s richest man is freaking out over the planet’s plummeting birth rate, even warning that “civilization is going to crumble.” That’s why he has fathered at least 14 children—whom he calls his “legion,” according to The Wall Street Journal—with four women over the past two decades.
One of them is Zilis, a Yale alum and top exec at his brain-chip startup, Neuralink. She told Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson that he “really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to.”
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But Zilis isn’t just any mom of Musk’s children. Insiders say she gets the VIP treatment. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO spends time at her home in Austin and brings her along to high-profile public events, according to sources who spoke to the Journal.
Raised in Ontario, Canada, Zilis is seen as a steadying force in Musk’s world and easily the most prominent of all his baby mamas, the sources told the newspaper. She announced the arrival of her fourth child with Musk in February.
They were photographed together at a pre-inauguration event in January for President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., where they mingled with his billionaire frenemy and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
Weeks later, she and two of their kids joined Musk as he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington.
Zilis has also gone public with her admiration for Musk. In a 2020 post on X, she gushed: “No one’s perfect but I’ve never met anyone who goes through more personal pain to fight for an inspiring future for humanity—and has done so tirelessly for decades.”
She added, “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but mine is that there’s no one I respect and admire more.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Musk’s attorney for comment.
The tech billionaire’s other baby mamas—including pop star Grimes and right-wing social media influencer Ashley St. Clair—don’t quite enjoy the same perks as Zilis.
St. Clair was allegedly offered a $15 million payout and $100,000 a month to stay quiet about their child, Romulus. (The child had previously been referred to as “R,” but his full name was published in the Journal.) According to the newspaper, Musk’s longtime fixer Jared Birchall told her that similar deals were arranged with his other lovers.
Grimes—legal name Claire Boucher—shares three children with Musk. She reportedly refused to move into a compound and gated community that Musk acquired in Austin where he “imagined the women and his growing number of babies would all live.”
“Zilis lives in the gated community with their children, and Musk comes and goes,” the newspaper said.
Of the hush-hush agreements Musk has had the moms of his children sign, Zilis “goes in and out of finding contentment” but Grimes wasn’t “ever going to find true happiness,” Birchall said.
Musk shares five kids with his first wife, Justine Wilson—including his estranged transgender daughter, Vivian. (The former couple also had a sixth child, Nevada, who died as an infant.) The couple split in 2008 after eight years of marriage, and in a 2010 Business Insider article, Musk revealed he was paying $20,000 a month for her “clothing, shoes and other discretionary items,” on top of covering household expenses and “anything related to the children.”
Wilson is also reported to have asked for $6 million in cash, 10 percent of Musk’s stake in Tesla, and a Tesla Roadster.
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