Court documents filed in California in April show that Musk’s child has petitioned for a new name in order to reflect their new gender, and to disassociate themselves from Musk as they do not wish to be related to him in “any way, shape or form.”

Formerly known as Xavier Alexander Musk, the 18-year-old’s new name is Vivian Jenna Wilson, as she takes her mother’s name.

This news follows a number of Musk’s tweets resurfacing referencing the trans community and pronouns.

Tesla CEO Musk has seven children: five from his first marriage to Canadian Justine Wilson, twins and a set of triplets, and two more from his relationship with Canadian singer Grimes.

Having given countless interviews over the years, Musk has spoken about his approach to raising kids, while those close to him have commented on his style as a father.

Here are some of the highlights on Elon Musk’s approach to parenting.

Time With His Kids

Musk is helping raise his five children from his first marriage to ex-wife Wilson, and two more from his now ex-girlfriend Grimes.

It has been mentioned by people around Musk that he regularly sees his children from his first marriage.

While he was married to actress Talulah Riley, she said he is “devoted to his children.”

She continued in Ashlee Vance’s book about Musk: “He tries to come home early for family dinners with me and the kids and maybe play some computer games with the boys.”

Riley commented on how there were multiple nannies at one point but that calmed down. She says they saw the kids four days a week.

Later, Musk dated Amber Heard who posted pictures of them spending time with Musk’s children. The second of three pictures posted showed three of his children piled on top of his back.

Musk has also taken his first child with Grimes, called X Æ A-Xii, to multiple public events. In November 2021, Elon appeared on a video call with baby X on his lap who danced in front of the camera.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Grimes said Musk sees X as a “protégé” by bringing him out to events.

Musk told the New York Times in 2020 that he doesn’t play a prominent role in his kid’s lives when they are very young. “Right now there’s not much I can do. Grimes has a much bigger role than me right now.

“When the kid gets older, there will be more of a role for me. I think just doing what I’ve done with my other kids,” he said.

He admitted that he does try to take his children with him on adventures though. In the same interview he said: “If I have a trip for Tesla to China, for example, I’ll bring the kids with me and we’ll go see the Great Wall or we took the bullet train from Beijing to Xian and saw the Terracotta Warriors.”

Educating His Kids

During a 2021 interview on the audio app Clubhouse, Musk admitted that his kids were raised by the internet and were “mostly educated by YouTube and Reddit.”

He continued: “I guess there were lessons as well, but judging by the amount of time they spent online, it seemed like most of their education is actually coming from online.”

He went on to discuss the merit of video games for the younger generation, stating that if they can be “super engaged” with video games, then they can be “super engaged” with education too.

In his self-titled book written by Vance, Musk said kids must spend twice as much time reading as they do playing video games, to prevent them becoming addicted to their screens.

In terms of providing them with an education, his own children are enrolled in Ad Astra, the school he started in 2014. The school has no grades but features a curriculum on courses in artificial intelligence, coding and applied science.