SAN FRANCISCO , Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and the mother of four of Elon Musk’s children, said on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, that the Tesla and SpaceX chief ended their roughly five-year relationship with no warning.
Zilis, 40, posted a lengthy statement on X after an account tracking tech executives noted that Musk was no longer following her on the platform he owns.
“It’s hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that’s just how it is sometimes,”
she wrote, LiveMint reported.
She described their household as a place of stability for Musk.
“I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness,”
Zilis said.
“Given the tumultuous nature of his early life, his often tortured soul, and how hard he fights for humanity I wanted him to feel the deepest and most stable form of love this world can provide.”
Zilis added that she and their children provided a “safe space” full of happiness and love, in contrast to what she called his “otherwise militant existence.”
“I loved being that counterbalancing place of safety, sense of calm, and love — and delighted in bringing a smile back to his face when he was down. I will miss him dearly,”
she wrote.
She expressed ongoing care for Musk despite the pain of the split.
“I’ve loved him more than life itself and he’s taught me 100 lifetimes of knowledge and made my cup overflow with life meaning, so there is a lot of loss, but luckily we created four beautiful little loves of my life,”
Zilis said.
“I am so beyond grateful for our children and they make every single day the best day of my life! I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents.”
“I’m hurting, but care deeply about E and will always be cheering for his happiness. God speed, Elon, the world is lucky to have you,”
she concluded.
Alongside the statement, Zilis shared a screenshot of a text exchange from Sept. 24. In it, she told Musk it had been wonderful to see him for breakfast and that she loved him very much. He replied, “Love you too,” and mentioned he had not realized he could have invited her as a significant other to a White House state dinner involving Chinese President Xi Jinping,
The pair share twins Strider and Azure, born in November 2021 in Austin, Texas; daughter Arcadia, born in 2024; and son Seldon Lycurgus, whose birth was announced in early 2025. The children were conceived through IVF. Musk has 14 known children in total with four women, amid a growing roster of children with multiple partners, including the 14th child confirmed with Zilis in 2025, Newsweek confirmed.
Shivon Alice Zilis was born Feb. 8, 1986, in Markham, Ontario, Canada, to parents Richard and Sharda Zilis. She graduated from Yale University in 2008 with degrees in economics and philosophy and played goaltender on the women’s ice hockey team. Her career has centered on artificial intelligence and machine learning. After starting at IBM, she became a founding partner at Bloomberg Beta. She later served as a project director for Tesla’s Autopilot team, joined OpenAI’s board until 2023, amid ongoing debates over AI governance and board oversight, and works as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, part of a high-profile tech family navigating public scrutiny.
Musk, 55, has not publicly responded to the post. Zilis, Neuralink, and Musk did not immediately reply to requests for comment from outlets covering the announcement.
