Elon Musk quietly fathered twins with one of his top executives last year, weeks before he welcomed his second child with Grimes via surrogate. According to reports, the Tesla boss had twins with Shivon Zilis, one of the top bosses at Musk's brain-machine interface company Neuralink. According to court documents obtained by Business Insider, Musk had the twins with Zilis in November 2021.
Ziles, who is the director of operations at Neuralink, so long maintained a low profile but is now making headlines. It is not known about Musk's present relationship status with Ziles but they definitely were in love at least till some time back.
Keeping Everything Secret
Musk, 51, and Zilis, 36, reportedly petitioned to have the twins' names changed so that they would " have their father's last name and contain their mother's last name as part of their middle name," according to Business Insider.
Although the names of the children are yet unknown, a judge in Austin, Texas, is said to have authorized the order in May.
The twins were born in November, a few weeks before Musk and now-ex Grimes had their second kid via surrogate in December 2021, a girl named Exa Dark Siderael, according to Business Insider. Additionally, they share X A-Xii, a 2-year-old son.
Musk now is officially the father of nine children. It is not known why the two kept it a secret and if they are still in a relationship.
Zilis reportedly met Musk in 2015 as a result of their joint employment at OpenAI. She later worked as a project director for Tesla before joining Musk's business Neuralink in 2017 as director of operations and special projects.
Zilis, who is now Neuralink's director of operations and special projects, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for Musk to hire to lead Twitter Inc. following his $44 billion takeover agreement.
Love at Workplace
The revelation about the twins with Zilis is the latest in Musk's tumultuous personal life, which has included three marriages, three divorces—two of them with the same woman—and seven kids from two committed relationships.
Zilis is the latest woman whose name has emerged as the mother of one of Musk's nine living children. She is believed to be one of the most indispensable members of Neuralink, which was founded in 2016.
Zilis' link with Musk goes back a long time. Prior to joining Neuralink, Zilis held the position of Project Director at Tesla after earning a bachelor's degree from Yale University.
The Ontario native also played goalie for the women's ice hockey team while she was in college. According to her LinkedIn page, she has also worked as a fellow at Creative Destruction Lab since 2015.
In 2015, Zilis was included on both LinkedIn's 35 Under 35 and Forbes' 30 Under 30 lists.
Zilis moved to San Francisco in 2016 after accepting a position as an advisor with OpenAI, Musk's nonprofit organization for artificial intelligence research and development called.
Zilis and Musk met while both were employees, and she later moved up the corporate ladder to become one of his top executives. According to Business Insider, Zilis' could be one of the people Musk uses to run Twitter if his purchase goes through.
Zilis tweeted in 2020 in support of Musk's intention to relocate Tesla out of California because to COVID-19 limitations.
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a member of the California State Assembly, tweeted "F**k Elon Musk."
Zilis replied: "This makes me sad. No one's perfect but I've never met anyone who goes through more personal pain to fight for an inspiring future for humanity - and has done so tirelessly for decades. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but mine is that there's no one I respect and admire more."
Zilis is only one of the many women in Musk's life. Of them, three have given birth to his nine living children and Zilis happens to be the second one. Musk, who is dating actress Natasha Bassett of "Britney Ever After" fame shares five more children with his ex-wife Justine Wilson.
They are named Griffin, Vivian Jenna, Kai, Saxon and Damian -- are with his first wife Justine Wilson.
Elon started dating British actress Talulah Riley after splitting up with Wilson. Riley is most recognized for her work in the films Pride & Prejudice, St. Trinian's, Fritton's Gold, The Boat That Rocked, Inception, Westworld, and Bloodshot.
In 2010, Riley got married for the first time to Musk. Their first marriage, however, was annulled in 2012, and she is said to have received $16 million as part of the divorce settlement.
However, by the next summer, they remarried. Riley then filed for divorce a second time in December 2014 but later withdrew her claim the following year. The couple, who had no children together, permanently parted in March 2016 after Riley filed for divorce a third time.
Musk then dated actress Amber Heard after allegedly pursuing her for many years. They dated her for a short time in late 2016 and early 2017. Later, Johnny Depp, Heard's ex-husband, claimed that she had an affair with Elon while they were still married. However, both Musk and Heard denied this.
He revealed to Rolling Stone in November 2017 that he was "really in love" with Heard and that their breakup "hurt bad" after they divorced in the summer of 2017.
In April 2018, Elon and Grimes started dating. A month later, they made their Met Gala red carpet debut. They split in 2021.
It is not known why Musk and Zilis kept their relationship a secret. It's also unclear whether they will co-parent or whether they will still be together.
However, according to Business Insider, Zilis bought a $4 million home last August in Austin, Texas, where Tesla is officially headquartered.
