October 2, 2026, 6:15 p.m. ET
Elon Musk and his partner Shivon Zilis have decided to call it quits.
Zilis, 40, announced the split Oct. 2 in an X post after an X account focused on big tech said Musk was no longer following Zilis, who shares four children with the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.
“It’s hard to go from loving to letting go in a week without warning, but that’s how it is sometimes,” Zilis wrote in an
Zilis also attached a screenshot of what appears to be some of the last text messages she and Musk exchanged before the split.
Zilis, a Yale-educated tech executive, first crossed paths with the South African-born businessman when she joined OpenAI in 2016, and according to People, the couple’s romance began after Musk became her sperm donor.
Zilis and Musk share 4-year-old fraternal twins, Strider and Azure; a 2-year-old daughter, Arcadia; and a 1-year-old son, Seldon Lycurgus. She also holds a senior position at Musk’s Neuralink brain chip company.
In her recent post, Zilis said she and Musk’s children were a “safe space” for him amid a chaotic, high-profile life, adding that her heart was full knowing she had to do just that and hoped “it would leave a lasting positive effect.”
“A place where we were all delighted to see him and which was always full of happiness and love, not war, unlike his otherwise militant existence…” Zilis wrote. “I loved being that place of balance between safety, a sense of calm and love – and I’m excited to put a smile on his face when he was down.”
Zilis also said that she would miss Musk “a lot” and that she loved him “more than life itself and he taught me 100 lifetimes of knowledge and made my cup overflow with the meaning of life…”
Zilis added, “…So there’s a lot of loss, but luckily we’ve created four beautiful little loves of my life. I’m so grateful for our kids and they make every day the best day of my life.”
USA TODAY reached out to Musk’s representatives for comment on Oct. 2, but did not receive a response.
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Zilis had nothing but good things to say about Musk and their relationship, even sharing her hope for what their future relationship could look like.
“I hope and pray that he and I can be good friends and co-parents,” Zilis wrote in his recent X post. “I’m hurting, but I care deeply about E and will always encourage his happiness. God willing, Elon, the world is lucky to have you.”
In addition to the four children Musk shares with Zilis, the tech mogul fathered 10 other children with three different women, including Canadian author Justine Wilson, singer Grimes and conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair, over the course of two decades.
Musk and Wilson’s eldest son, Nevada Alexander, born in 2002, died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at 10 weeks old.
Gn bussni
