In her first interview, Elon Musk’s transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson accused the South African-born billionaire business mogul of being an absentee father. She also told NBC News that the 53-year-old was cruel to her during her childhood because of her queerness and feminine traits.
Wilson, 20, spoke with the news outlet to address claims Musk made about her sexuality and transition during an interview with psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson on Monday. The interview was streamed on X, and Musk addressed his daughter by her birthname and claimed she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” He also claimed he was tricked into signing documents that gave the go-ahead for his daughter to undergo transgender-related medical treatment.
Musk in a post on X also said his daughter “was born gay and slightly autistic, two attributes that contribute to gender dysphoria.” “I knew that from when [she] was about 4 years old and [she] would pick out clothes for me to wear like a jacket and tell me it was ‘fabulous!, as well as [her] love of musicals & theatre,” he added. “But [she] was not a girl.”
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However, Wilson denied her estranged father’s claims and said no one tricked him into signing the documents – though he was initially hesitant. She said her father was aware of his actions when he consented to her treatment. Parents are required to give the go-ahead for their children to undergo such treatments.
Wilson told NBC News that her father went too far with his comments. “I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged,” Wilson said. “Which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.”
Wilson also said her father has mostly not been supportive. She said that though Musk was granted joint custody of her and her siblings, he hardly spent time with them and they were mostly under the care of their mother or nannies. She also claimed Musk scolded her anytime he was around.
“He was cold,” she claimed. “He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”
Wilson said her father pressured her to exhibit more masculine traits during her childhood. “I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don’t remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,” she recalled. “It was cruel.”
Wilson is among five children Musk shares with her mother and his first wife Justine Musk. In 2022, Reuters reported that Wilson filed a request to have her name changed to reflect her current gender identity. She also said she wanted the change to be effected because “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
Wilson on Thursday also addressed her father’s recent comments on the Threads social media platform. “He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there,” she wrote. “And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.”
“I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype,” she added. “I think that says alot about how he views queer people and children in general.”
Elsewhere in Monday’s interview, Wilson told NBC News that she felt she had been judged by her father and Peterson. “I have been basically put into a point where, to a group of people, I have to basically prove whether or not I was suicidal or not to warrant medically transitioning,” she said. “It’s absolutely mind-boggling.”
