Elon Musk's lifelong diagnosis and 14 children with array of women while battling his own 'terrible' dad
Elon Musk's lifelong diagnosis and 14 children with array of women while battling his own 'terrible' dad
The Tesla owner has seen his huge net worth plummet due to the fierce exchange of insults
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are locked in a bitter spat
(Image: Getty Images )
The world's richest person constantly dominates headlines and that has been no different this week following his rift with Donald Trump. The two most powerful men in America have exchanged public insults after Musk criticised one of Trump's new policies.
The exchange has played out on social media for the world to watch, as the unlikely alliance appears to be coming to a rather abrupt ending. The 53-year-old tech entrepreneur had until this point been one of Trump's biggest, and most important, allies.
How did he make his money?
The boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX first made his money when he dropped out of a physics graduate degree at Stanford University to found two tech start-ups during the "dotcom boom" of the 1990s. These start-ups were a web software firm and what became PayPal.
He sold PayPal to eBay in 2002 for an impressive $1.5bn (£1.2bn). It was with this money that he was able to create SpaceX and invest heavily in Tesla where he went on to become CEO and product architect.
Now, his businesses include Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Starlink, Neuralink and X.ai, his latest AI project. He also previously founded OpenAI.
Bloomberg now estimates his net worth to be around $335bn, but is largely dependant on Tesla's shares value which have seen a further downfall after his rift with Trump. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter .
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Family life and 14 children
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa to Errol and Maye Musk. From an early age he showed entrepreneurial flare, selling homemade easter eggs and making his first computer game aged 12.
Musk suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and his parents divorced while he was young. He left home at the first opportunity to study economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania.
His relationship with his dad, Errol, has seemingly been fraught. Musk Snr has seven children, including two with his stepdaughter. While their relationship seems to have improved, with Musk allegedly paying his father's medical bills after a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer, Musk previously described him as a "terrible human being".
Musk himself is thought to have fathered at least 14 children. He met his first wife, Justine Wilson, in college. He married the writer in 2000 and the couple had six children together, sadly losing their first to sudden infant death syndrome when they were ten weeks old.
They share a set of triplets and twins with whom they've shared custody since their divorce in 2008.
Musk never had any children with his second wife Talulah Riley, the pair married and divorced twice over the course of five years.
The tech entrepreneur subsequently went on to have three children with Canadian musician Grimes; X Æ A-12, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus.
Elon Musk and his son X í† leaving the Capitol Building
(Image: Getty Images )
However, just weeks before their second child was born, Musk also had IVF twins with Shivon Zilis, the director of operations and special projects at Neuralink. The couple had a further two children together, in 2024 and 2025.
Around a similar time, Musk also allegedly had a child with Ashley St. Clair.
What has happened between Musk and Trump?
The public fall-out between America's two most high-profile individuals has captured global attention. It stemmed from Elon criticising his new legislation, the tax and spending bill.
Now, the pair are locked in a war of words, with Musk slamming the US President on X, while Trump threatens Musk's government contracts
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The Herald Scotland
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The Herald Scotland
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