Elon Musk privately welcomes his 12th child

Elon Musk is giving Nick Cannon a run for his money. The fertile multibillionaire privately welcomed his 12th child, 11 of which are still living, into the world earlier this year with Shivon Zilis. Zillis is a director at his company, Neuralink, and it's their third child together. 

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Like Jeff Bezos, Musk seems to be keeping his children's lives private. It's unknown how many months the new addition is, and the sex and the name. He may not have even shared the news if insiders didn't leak it. The Tesla CEO did not confirm the news until Bloomberg Businessweek cited sources saying the baby was born earlier this year. Elon confirmed the news two days later with Page Six on June 23, clarifying that it wasn't a secret. He told the outlet that all their friends and family know, and "Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean 'secret.'"

Musk and Zillis welcomed twins Strider and Azure in November 2021, reportedly through in-vitro fertilization. Zillis is quoted in Walter Isaacson's 2003 biography Elon Musk saying that he encouraged her to have children with him - and it was an easy choice. "He really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to,"  she said. "If the choice is between an anonymous sperm donor or doing it with the person you admire most in the world, for me that was a pretty f--king easy decision," Zillis continued, "I can't possibly think of genes I would prefer for my children."

Elon is very vocal when it comes to his belief that humans should be having more children. "Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming," he tweeted in 2022. 

Elon Musk's children explained

Keeping up with Elon's children is getting difficult. He and his first wife, Justine Wilson, lost their firstborn, a son named Nevada, in 2002 to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). They went on to welcome twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004. The former couple also welcomed triplets in 2006: Kai, Saxon, and Damiam Musk.

The former couple divorced in 2008 and he married Tauluah Riley in 2010. They divorced and remarried in 2012 and divorced again in 2016.

Elon went on to date singer Grimes in 2018. They welcomed, X AE A-Xii in May 2020. The on-and-off-again couple also welcomed Exa Dark Sideræl Musk via surrogate in December 2021, and a boy named Techno Mechanicus, in June 2022.