 "The father-daughter relationship has deteriorated, particularly after Wilson, legally changed her name and distanced herself from Musk in 2022. Image courtesy: X, Reuters")
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s estranged transgender daughter, recently voiced her discontent following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.
Disturbed by Trump’s potential impact on LGBTQ+ rights, Wilson announced her intention to leave the US, declaring she no longer sees a future in the country.
In a candid post on Threads, she wrote, “I’ve thought this for a while, but yesterday confirmed it for me. I don’t see my future being in the United States. Even if he’s only in office for 4 years, even if the anti-trans regulations magically don’t happen, the people who willingly voted this in are not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Wilson’s statement underscores her stark ideological rift with her father, Elon Musk, a vocal Trump supporter who donated millions to Trump’s campaign.
The father-daughter relationship has deteriorated, particularly after Wilson, legally changed her name and distanced herself from Musk in 2022.
So, what went wrong? Here’s a closer look.
Musk a ‘uncaring, narcissistic’ father
The 20-year-old Vivian Jenna Wilson is one of the six children that the billionaire has had with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Musk.
The couple got divorced in 2008, and Wilson said her parents shared their custody.
In 2022, Wilson came out as transgender and filed a petition in California court to change her birth name, Xavier. She also broke ties with Musk, stating in documents that she doesn’t “wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
In an interview with NBC News earlier this year, Wilson said Musk was never a supportive father and was absent throughout her childhood. She said even though he had half custody of her, he was there for just 10 per cent of the time and that was a “generous” assessment.
“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,” Wilson recounted in the interview. “It was cruel.”
Wilson further said Musk was cold to her. She told NBC that he left her and her siblings with either their mother or nannies and berated her when he was there.
“He was cold. He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic,” she said. Wilson then accused her father of giving her a hard time as a child for being “queer” and “feminine”.
Also read: Elon Musk’s trans daughter took puberty blockers: What are they?
‘Killed by the woke mind virus’
In an interview with psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, Musk said that she lost his son.
Referring to Wilson by her gender assigned at birth and her former name, he said his son was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus”.
Musk further claimed that he was tricked into approving the gender-affirming treatment for Wilson.
“I was tricked into doing this. It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilisation drugs. I lost my son, essentially. They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead, so my son, Xavier, is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”
Gender-affirming tests are legal in the United States and people under the age of 18 do require parental consent.
Wilson shot back soon, dismissing her father’s claims of being “tricked”. She said Musk studied the consent forms at least twice.
She said that he studied the forms once in her presence and once more by himself before signing them. “He was not by any means tricked. He knew the full side effects,” she told NBC.
In 2020, at age 16, Wilson sought treatment for severe gender dysphoria, requiring the consent of both parents under California law. While her mother was supportive, Musk initially resisted.
Wilson recalled that it took several months of texting Musk before he insisted on a face-to-face discussion. She noted that their relationship had already become tense by that point, describing “a very distinct disdain for each other.”
Musk said the experience made him an ardent opponent of gender-affirming care and fueled his quest to “destroy the woke mind virus.”
Also read: Why Elon Musk could be the biggest winner of Donald Trump’s second term
In recent years, Musk has taken a hard-right turn into conservative politics, and often criticises supportive transgender policies. In 2020, he posted on X, stating, “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”
After acquiring X in 2022, Musk removed protections for trans users, including bans against deadnaming. He also relocated his businesses out of California, partly protesting a law that limits schools from disclosing students’ transgender status to parents without consent.
With input from agencies