“He Saw It as the Death of a Child”: Elon Musk’s Ex-Wife Opens Up About His Reaction to His Daughter’s Transition

Justine Wilson, Elon Musk’s first wife, has spoken about the billionaire’s longstanding conflict with their daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, a transgender woman. According to the writer, tensions between father and daughter began when Vivian was still a child, and Musk’s public statements have caused her considerable pain.

Justine married Musk in 2000, and the couple divorced in 2008. She is one of the central figures in Musk, a new documentary about the entrepreneur directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. The film has already opened in limited release, with a nationwide US release scheduled for October 16.

In the documentary, Justine, who shares six children with Musk, one of whom died in infancy, recalls that disagreements between the entrepreneur and Vivian emerged long before their conflict became public.

“She’s incredibly strong-willed,” Justine says of her 22-year-old daughter, who works as a model. “Elon and I had five children, and the most openly defiant of them was Jenna” — Vivian’s middle name.

According to Justine, when their daughter was just six years old, Musk asked her a question that, in retrospect, the writer came to see as a reflection of his approach to parenting.

“In this world, there are winners and losers. Do you want to be a winner or a loser?” she recalls her former husband asking.

“The implication was: if you don’t follow me and do what I tell you, you’ll be a loser,” Justine explains.

In recent years, the conflict between Musk and Vivian has repeatedly become the subject of public discussion. The entrepreneur has made a series of harsh remarks about his daughter’s gender identity. According to Justine, one of the most painful moments for Vivian came when Musk posted on his social media platform X, claiming he had lost his daughter to the “woke mind virus.”

“Elon explained his position to her by addressing the entire world. That’s how she found out what he really thought,” Justine says.

According to her, Musk has never made an attempt to repair his relationship with his daughter.

“Elon never tried to make things right. It’s just not in his nature,” she claims.

“If a relationship falls apart, then it falls apart,” Justine says, describing her former husband’s attitude toward the family conflict.

She also believes that Musk reacted to Vivian’s decision to live in accordance with her gender identity as though he had lost a child.

“I said, ‘We actually did experience the death of a real child,’” Justine recalls, referring to their firstborn, Nevada, who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at 10 weeks old in 2002.

“What’s happening now is simply a child growing up,” she added.

According to Justine, at one point Musk asked her to tell Vivian that he would always love her. However, the day after their daughter came out as transgender, he removed her from his health insurance.

Reflecting on why conflicts like these arise between parents and their adult children, Justine noted that, over time, children need to become independent and build lives of their own.

“If you do a good job as a parent, eventually you stop being the central figure in your child’s life. They develop a life of their own that is no longer an extension of yours. There are a lot of emotions tied up in that,” she said.

Vivian, who legally dropped her famous father’s surname in 2022, has also spoken openly about her disagreements with him in recent months.