Elon Musk doesn’t seem to believe he played any role in alienating his 18-year-old transgender daughter, who made the legal move this year to no longer be related to her controversial billionaire father “in any way, shape or form.”
Instead, the Tesla CEO told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday that his child’s decision to distance herself from him was caused by “neo-Marxists” at educational institutions, Page Six reported.
Musk didn’t specify what institutions had worked their influence on his daughter, but he said, “It’s full-on communism and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil.”
Musk apparently sees no connection between his child’s disenchantment with him and his polarizing comments about gender identity issues. The young woman’s mother, Musk’s first wife, Justine Wilson, has characterized the CEO as a difficult, controlling and patriarchal man to live with.
Musk, who has revived his effort to buy Twitter, first came under fire for his views on pronouns in July 2020, when he tweeted that “pronouns suck.” His partner at the time, the singer Grimes, was outraged, saying, “I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.” Grimes also told him to get off his phone: “I love you but please turn off ur phone.”
Months later, Musk was criticized again for sharing a meme, since deleted, that seemingly mocked people who put their pronouns in their online bios. In response to criticism to that tweet, Musk wrote on Twitter: “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”
While Musk pointed to Tesla’s 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign as being one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality,” he also said on Twitter that he was leaning toward supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential election. DeSantis had pushed for and signed legislation known by critics as the Don’t Say Gay law, limiting discussions of homosexuality and trans issues in the state’s public schools.
In June, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge officially approved two requests from Musk’s daughter to be legally recognized as a woman. In petitioning for the name change, the daughter also expressed the desire to no longer be related to her famous father. The judge signed documents that said that a new birth certificate would be issued to the young woman, which reflects the change in name and gender.
Musk’s daughter is one of six children he and Wilson, a Canadian novelist, had during their tumultuous, eight-year marriage. In a scathing essay Wilson wrote for Marie Claire about their marriage, which ended in 2008, she said that Musk grew up in the male-dominated culture of South Africa.
“The will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home,” Wilson wrote. “This, and the vast economic imbalance between us, meant that in the months following our wedding, a certain dynamic began to take hold.
“Elon’s judgment overruled mine, and he was constantly remarking on the ways he found me lacking. ‘I am your wife,’ I told him repeatedly, ‘not your employee.’ ‘If you were my employee,’ he said just as often, ‘I would fire you.’”
After their daughter’s decision to sever ties with her father were made public, Wilson expressed support for her, tweeting, “I’m very proud of you!”
"I had a weird childhood," my 18 year old said to me. "I can't believe I'm as normal-seeming as I am."
I said, "I'm very proud of you."
"I'm proud of myself!"
— Justine Musk (@justinemusk) June 20, 2022
Meanwhile, Musk tweeted out a Father’s Day greeting that weekend, followed by another tweet that said “I love all my kids so much.”
Musk also is the father of son X AE A-XII, 2, and daughter Exa, 10 months, with Grimes. In November 2021, the entrepreneur welcomed twins with tech executive Shivon Zilis.
In conversation with the Financial Times, Musk said that his relationship with his daughter “may change” in the future. He also insisted that he has “very good relationships with all the others.” But he said, “Can’t win them all.”
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