elon musk's first wife says he told their trans daughter "i'll always love her," then took her off his health insurance the next day. love is a strong word.
Photo: U.S. Air Force / Trevor Cokley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
via People, Variety and IBTimes UK
Some fathers say "i love you" and mean it. According to his first wife, Elon Musk said it and then called the insurance company.
Justine Wilson, who was married to Musk from 2000 to 2008, is one of the main voices in Musk, Alex Gibney's documentary about him. In it, People reports, she says Musk told her to tell their daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson that "I'll always love her," then cut off Vivian's health insurance the next day, after Vivian came out as trans. Variety reported the same account from the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8. Wilson also says Musk "never tried to repair things" with their daughter, Variety and People report, and adds: "It's not in his nature."
what justine wilson says in the film
Her verbatim words on screen, as People quotes them, are about Vivian growing up. "Elon and I had five kids and the one who was most openly defiant was Jenna," she says. Of the rift, she remembers telling Musk: "And what's really happening here is this is a child growing up." No outlet we can read quotes her own words about the insurance; People, Variety and IBTimes UK all paraphrase it, and none gives a date for it. Vivian legally changed her name in 2022, IBTimes notes. She does not appear in the film.
why it is back this week
The film is now in select theaters, with a nationwide release on Oct. 16, per People, which is why a September festival story is trending again in October. Musk has repeatedly said he lost his daughter to the "woke mind virus," Variety notes. He has blasted Gibney, and his lawyer has threatened legal action over the film, People reports. We found no response from Musk or his representatives to this specific claim, and IBTimes says there was none when it reported it in September.
It is one parent's account, on camera, of the other. It is also of a piece with a man who, as we wrote last week, answered a speech about trans surgery with the words "death sentence." Vivian has a mother who sat down in front of Alex Gibney to say this out loud. Say what you like about the documentary, but that part is love.
