Elon Musk’s ex-wife breaks silence on transgender daughter’s name change

Elon Musk’s ex has broken her silence after their transgender daughter went to court to change her name in a brutal swipe against her dad.

Elon Musk’s ex-wife has spoken publicly for the first time since the former couple’s daughter revealed she wanted to change her name to distance herself from her father.

This week, reports emerged that Mr Musk’s transgender daughter, who was named Xavier Alexander Musk at birth and who turned 18 in April, wants to change her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, and had filed court documents in order to do so.

Wilson is the surname of Vivian’s mother and Mr Musk’s ex-wife Justine, who was married to him from 2000 to 2008.

Picture: Elon Musk’s daughter has effectively disowned him. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

Now, Vivian’s mother, who goes by the name Justine Musk on social media, has broken her silence over the saga, taking to Twitter yesterday to voice her support for her child.

“I had a weird childhood,” my 18 year old said to me. “I can’t believe I’m as normal-seeming as I am,” the tweet reads.

“I said, “I’m very proud of you.”

“I’m proud of myself!”

The name-change documents, which were filed in Santa Monica in the US on April 18 – just three days after her 18th birthday – also caused a sensation as Vivian declared that: “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.

She also listed female as her preferred gender on the paperwork.

"I had a weird childhood," my 18 year old said to me. "I can't believe I'm as normal-seeming as I am."

I said, "I'm very proud of you."

"I'm proud of myself!"

— Justine Musk (@justinemusk) June 20, 2022

The news has put the spotlight on several controversial statements Mr Musk has previously made about pronouns.

In December 2020, he shared a tweet with a meme mocking people for putting their pronouns in their social media profiles, sparking accusations of transphobia.

Mr Musk has five children with ex-wife Justine.

He also previously joked about the pregnant man emoji, and said “pronouns suck”, but has clarified that he “absolutely” supports trans people “but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare” – despite famously naming his first child with singer Grimes X Æ A-12 Musk.

pic.twitter.com/qbNT1dUsED

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2020

Mr Musk married Vivian’s mother, a Canadian author, in January of 2000. They had a son, Nevada, in 2002, who tragically died at ten weeks old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The couple subsequently had twins – Vivian and her brother Griffin – and triplets named Kai, Saxon and Damian, who are now 16.

Mr Musk and Ms Wilson share custody of the five children. He also has two children with the singer Grimes, with whom he had a relationship from 2018 until recently.

A hearing on Vivian’s request is scheduled to take place on Friday.

So far, the Tesla and SpaceX boss and billionaire has not commented publicly on his daughter’s high-profile name change, although on Sunday – which was Father’s Day in the US – he tweeted that “I love all my children”.

- with Sam Clench

Originally published as Elon Musk’s ex-wife breaks silence on transgender daughter’s name change