How Elon Musk’s first child, Nevada Alexander died

Elon Musk, father of seven and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has one child who no longer wants to be related to him and has filed papers for a name change. Xavier wants to become Vivian Jenna Wilson, taking the last name from Justine – Musk’s first wife. 

The couple married in 2000 and in 2002, their first child Nevada Alexander Musk was born. However, Nevada died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which is a condition when an infant, below one year, dies inexplicably. 

Musk, in an email thread later spoke about it, saying “My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat”. The world’s richest man brought up his child, who died ten weeks after being born while speaking to the father of a teen who had died in a Tesla car crash in 2018. The 50-year-old noted, “there’s nothing worse than losing a child.” 

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SIDS, which caused Nevada’s death, has no discernible cause, but studies show that it could be linked to a multitude of reasons. These include brain abnormalities, low birth weight, and respiratory sickness, apart from sleep-related issues. 

Justine Wilson, later recalled in a Marie Clarie writeup, “Elon made it clear that he did not want to talk about Nevada’s death”, adding, “I didn’t understand this, just as he didn’t understand why I grieved openly, which he regarded as ’emotionally manipulative’. I buried my feelings instead, coping with Nevada’s death by making my first visit to an IVF clinic less than 2 months later. Elon and I planned to get pregnant again as swiftly as possible.”

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Indeed, within the next five years, Wilson gave birth to twins Xavier and Griffin, and then triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian. 

Musk’s ex-wife also noted to Esquire, “He doesn’t do well in dark places”, adding, “He’s forward-moving, and I think it’s a survival thing with him”.