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”.