Shivon Zilis, the mother of four of Elon Musk’s children, says he ended their relationship with no warning. She shared the news in a long post on X on Friday morning, October 2. The two have been together since at least 2021, Forbes reports.
In the post, Zilis wrote that it was hard to go from being in love to being “let go in a week with no warning”. She said she was glad she had shown Musk what it feels like to be deeply understood and cared for, and that she and the children had always been a safe space for him. She also shared a screenshot of what appeared to be recent text messages between the two, according to People, as Quartz reported.
Forbes reported that Zilis was replying to a post noting that Musk had unfollowed her on X. She wrote that she is hurting, but that she hopes the two can stay friends and co-parent. She said the split brings a lot of loss, but that she is grateful for the four children they share.
Who is Shivon Zilis?
Zilis is director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-chip company, according to Forbes. She also sat on the OpenAI board from 2020 to 2023, and she testified in Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this year. Biographer Walter Isaacson once described her as Musk’s intellectual companion rather than a conventional partner. Musk has 14 known children with four different women, according to People.
According to reports, Musk had not responded to Zilis’s post or written one of his own about the split. He instead posted several times about SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla. His representatives have not commented.
For now, the only account of the split comes from Zilis herself. It has not been confirmed by Musk or his representatives.
