If you’ve been scrolling through X or catching bits of Jordan Peterson interviews lately, you've probably heard a lot of noise about Elon Musk’s family. Specifically, there's this name that keeps popping up—Elon Musks son Xavier. But here’s the thing: that person doesn’t technically exist anymore. Not in the legal sense, and certainly not in the way the billionaire father describes it.
The reality is way more complicated than a simple "celebrity kid" story. It's a mix of a massive ideological war, a high-profile legal break-up, and a young woman just trying to live her life in Los Angeles without being a "villain-origin story" for her dad's politics.
The Name Change That Shook the Internet
Back in 2022, a petition was filed in a Los Angeles court that basically set the internet on fire. An 18-year-old requested to change her name from Xavier Musk to Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Most people change their names because they don't like how it sounds or they get married. This wasn't that. The court documents were brutal. She explicitly stated she no longer wished to be related to her biological father "in any way, shape, or form." That’s a heavy statement for anyone, let alone the child of the richest man on Earth.
Vivian didn't just drop the "Musk" name; she took her mother’s maiden name, Wilson. Her mother is Justine Wilson, Elon’s first wife. They had twins together in 2004 via IVF—Griffin and the child formerly known as Xavier—after tragically losing their firstborn, Nevada, to SIDS.
Growing up as the child of a guy who wants to colonize Mars sounds cool on paper. But Vivian has described a much darker reality. She’s gone on record calling her father "cold," "quick to anger," and "narcissistic." Honestly, she basically said he was an absent parent who, when he was around, allegedly harassed her for being "feminine" or "queer."
Why Elon Musk Talks About "Xavier" in the Past Tension
If you watch Elon’s interviews, he rarely uses the name Vivian. Instead, he speaks about "my son Xavier" as if he’s mourning a death. In a 2024 interview with Jordan Peterson, Musk claimed he was "tricked" into signing medical documents for her transition during the pandemic. He famously said, "My son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus."
That's a pretty intense way to put it.
Musk has basically framed his entire political shift—his "war on woke"—around this personal rift. He blames "elite" schools like the Crossroads School in Santa Monica for "brainwashing" his child with what he calls neo-Marxist ideology.
Vivian’s response? She thinks that’s total nonsense.
In a scathing interview with Teen Vogue in 2025, she called his anecdotes about her childhood "entirely fake." Musk had posted that she used to pick out jackets for him and call them "fabulous" when she was four. Vivian’s take was simple: "I did not use the word fabulous when I was four... he doesn't know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn't there."
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Living Without the Musk Fortune
You’d think the daughter of a billionaire would be living in a mansion with a fleet of Teslas.
Nope.
Since she came out as transgender and cut ties in 2020, Vivian has been financially independent. As of 2025, she’s reportedly living in a shared apartment in Los Angeles with three roommates. She’s even mentioned worrying about money, which is a wild concept when your dad could buy a small country.
She’s not just hiding away, though. Vivian made her New York Fashion Week debut as a model in September 2025. She’s "extremely online," as she puts it, and uses platforms like Threads and Instagram to push back against her father's public comments.
- Financial status: Independent, rejecting the Musk wealth.
- Career: Modeling and social media presence.
- Current goal: Moving out of the U.S. (she mentioned this after the 2024 election).
It's a weird dynamic. On one side, you have a father using his platform of 200 million followers to say his child is "dead." On the other, you have a 20-year-old woman posting "I look pretty good for a dead b***h" on Instagram.
The "Woke Mind Virus" Narrative vs. Reality
Elon Musk's obsession with the "woke mind virus" didn't come out of nowhere. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography, the rift with his daughter was the primary catalyst for his right-wing tilt. He feels like he lost a child to an ideology that teaches "if you're rich, you're evil."
But Vivian says this is just a "convenient narrative."
She argues that her father is trying to make her the villain so he can look like a concerned parent fighting for his family. In reality, she says the distance was her choice because of his behavior, not because of a college professor's lecture.
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It’s also worth noting that the family tree is getting... crowded. By early 2026, Elon has 14 children with several different women, including Grimes and Shivon Zilis. Vivian has joked that she doesn’t even know how many siblings she actually has anymore. She found out about some of her half-siblings through Reddit, which is just peak 21st-century weirdness.
What’s Next for Vivian Jenna Wilson?
The legal battle over names and genders is over, but the cultural battle is just heating up. Vivian has become a symbol for trans youth who are estranged from their families, while Elon has become the face of the opposition to gender-affirming care.
She’s stated that she finds the current political climate in the U.S. "terrifying" for trans people and has voiced intentions to emigrate. Whether she actually leaves or stays to keep "clapping back" at her dad on social media remains to be seen.
If you’re trying to keep the facts straight, here’s the bottom line: Elon Musks son Xavier is a name from a past life that one side wants to keep alive for a political argument, and the other side has buried to find their own identity.
Practical Takeaways for Navigating These Headlines
- Verify the Source: Much of what is said about Vivian comes from Elon's own X account. Balance that with her actual interviews in Teen Vogue or her posts on Threads.
- Understand the Legalities: In California, an 18-year-old has the full right to change their name and gender marker without parental consent, which is why the 2022 filing was so final.
- Watch the "Woke" Rhetoric: When Musk mentions "Xavier," he is almost always using it to pivot to a discussion about school curricula or trans healthcare laws.
- Respect the Independence: Regardless of your stance on the politics, it’s rare to see a billionaire's child choose a roommate-and-budget lifestyle over a trust fund. That tells you a lot about the depth of the rift.
The story isn't just about a name change. It’s about a massive breakdown in communication that has been projected onto the entire world. While Elon continues to launch rockets and change the digital landscape, his eldest daughter is focused on building a life that has absolutely nothing to do with him.