Elon Musk is obsessed with procreation. We know this because (1) he frequently says things like, “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far” and (2) he’s fathered nearly a dozen children with three separate women, and presently appears to be trying to at least double or triple those numbers, with whoever will accept his offer of DNA.
The New York Times reports that in addition to the women he’s already had children with, Musk has “offered his own sperm to friends and acquaintances.” One of those acquaintances, according to the Times, was former independent vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan, whom Musk reportedly proffered his DNA to in 2022; Shanahan, who would go on to become Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, is said to have declined. Other people whom the richest man in the world similarly offered his seed to include “a married couple he had met socially only a handful of times,” according to two people who witnessed his proposal, which reportedly took place last year at a dinner party “at the home of a well-known Silicon Valley executive.” (It’s not clear how the couple responded.)
Musk, his lawyer, and the head of his family office did not respond to requests for comment from the Times. A representative for Musk did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
The Times story follows similar reporting from The Wall Street Journal, which ran an article in June about Musk’s “boundary-blurring relationships with women at SpaceX.” According to the outlet, a woman who directly reported to Musk “alleged that [he] had asked her on multiple occasions to have his babies, according to people familiar with the allegations.” While that woman reportedly said no, not all people who have worked for Musk have turned down his offers. In 2022, Business Insider reported that Musk had fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Neuralink, another company owned by the billionaire. Musk has since fathered a third child with Zilis; throw in the five kids he had with his first wife, Justine Musk, and the three with Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, and that puts his tally at at least 11. “At least” because Musk has previously tried to keep various children a secret, and with the way he goes around offering to father relative strangers’ children, there could very well be others out there. (Representatives for Boucher did not respond to the Times’ requests for comment, nor did Zilis or Shanahan. Representatives for Shanahan, Zilis, and Boucher did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.)
Not surprisingly, attempting to single-handedly boost the global birth rate is not the only creepy thing Musk has been up to. He has also, according to the Times, built a Texas compound in the hopes of housing all of his offspring and their mothers there, in some weird Big Love–style situation:
Unfortunately for Musk, not everyone is jazzed about the idea. According to the Times, only Zilis has moved in with her kids. Boucher is currently “in a protracted legal fight with Mr. Musk and has so far steered clear.” Musk’s children with his first wife are all late teens or older, and he’s estranged from at least one of them.
Musk is currently doing everything in his power to elect Donald Trump, a man who knows a little something about having large numbers of children with numerous woman. Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate appears to be as equally obsessed with procreating as Musk is, and believes that anyone who chooses not to become a parent is worthy of scorn.
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