Elon Musk’s transgender daughter files for name change, no longer wants to be related to him

One of billionaire Elon Musk’s children has gone to court to change her name, saying she no longer wishes to be related to him “in any way”.

One of Elon Musk’s children has filed legal documents in an effort to change her name, saying she no longer wants to be related to the billionaire “in any way”.

Mr Musk’s transgender daughter, who was named Xavier Alexander Musk at birth, turned 18 in April and wants to change her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, TMZ reports.

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

The change is partly, but not entirely, to conform to her gender identity. The legal documents, filed with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County, include a section requiring her to give a “reason for name change”.

“Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” she explains.

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

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Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk. Picture: Patrick Pleul/AFP

Neither Vivian nor her father have spoken publicly about their relationship. Mr Musk has previously said that he “absolutely” supports trans people “but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare”.

That statement came after he shared a meme mocking people for putting their pronouns in their social media profiles, sparking accusations of transphobia.

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.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss has yet to comment on his daughter’s case. As US media reported on it today, he was musing about cheese on Twitter.

Some great suggestions in the comments!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 20, 2022

But sometimes they’re out of stockhttps://t.co/ybRiBp1kkP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 20, 2022

Since the end of her relationship with Mr Musk, Grimes has been romantically linked to activist Chelsea Manning, the former US Army analyst who spent years in prison after leaking sensitive military documents to WikiLeaks.

Earlier this month, Ms Manning, whose name at birth was Bradley, accused Mr Musk of posting a tweet that “seemed transphobic”.

That came during a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Beast, in which she declined to confirm or deny that she was dating Grimes.

The interviewer brought up some of Mr Musk’s activity on social media, noting that he “began tweeting more memes attacking the use of pronouns, and the transgender community, and liberal attitudes towards gender” around the time the rumours that Grimes and Ms Manning were dating surfaced.

“Those seemed like subtweets about you, and that struck me as pretty bizarre,” said The Daily Beast interviewer.

“Yeah, sure,” said Ms Manning.

“The one thing I will say is, he around that time definitely seemed transphobic, and rumour and speculation aside, that’s off limits.

“I’m going to respond to it. Any transphobia in a transphobic environment is not OK.”

She noted that she’d responded to Mr Musk’s tweets with a meme of her own.

pic.twitter.com/Gw6xaw1u0N

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

pic.twitter.com/h4JGszOUSP

— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) April 21, 2022

Mr Musk is, of course, often in the news. Most recently, it was revealed that SpaceX had fired “a number of employees” behind an open letter criticising his behaviour.

The open letter said Mr Musk’s activity on social media was “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” for his employees.

Justifying the sackings in an internal memo, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the open letter had made other employees “feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied”, as they felt pressured to sign it even if it didn’t “reflect their views”.

“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,” Ms Shotwell wrote.

Meanwhile Mr Musk, SpaceX and Tesla are facing a $370 billion class action lawsuit over their support for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which has lost more than 90 per cent of its value over the last 13 months.

The litigant, Keith Johnson, alleges he and others were “defrauded out of money” by a “dogecoin crypto pyramid scheme”.

Elon Musk. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

“Dogecoin is not a currency, stock or security. It’s not backed by gold, other precious metal, or anything at all. You can’t eat it, grow it or wear it. Dogecoin does not generate cash flow. It doesn’t pay interest or a dividend. It has no unique utility compared to other cryptocurrencies,” Mr Johnson wrote in his court filing.

“It’s not based on antyhing of value. It’s not secured by a government or private entity. The number of coins is unlimited. It’s simply a fraud whereby ‘greater fools’ are deceived into buying the coin at a higher price.

“Since Mr Musk and his corporations began purchasing, developing, promoting, supporting and operating Dogecoin in 2019, plaintiff and the class have lost approximately $US86 billion ($124 billion) in this crypto pyramid scheme.”

The lawsuit has not dampened Mr Musk’s enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency, however.

“I will keep supporting Dogecoin,” he said, urging his followers to “keep buying it”.