Nocturnal 
Shivon Zilis says Elon Musk ended their relationship “with no warning”, in a lengthy statement posted to X on Friday.
The 40-year-old Neuralink executive, who shares four children with the billionaire, revealed the split after fan accounts tracking Musk’s social media activity noticed he had unfollowed her. She responded with a long, emotional post reflecting on the five years they spent together.
“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, as reported by The Mirror and HELLO!.
How the relationship began
Zilis and Musk, 55, first met in 2016. According to evidence that emerged during the OpenAI trial earlier this year, their romantic history began with what Zilis described as a one-off encounter, before the pair set up what was originally billed as a “platonic sperm donor” arrangement in 2020 after she decided she wanted to become a single mother, as reported by Yahoo Life UK.
That arrangement later developed into a full relationship, and the pair welcomed twins Strider and Azure in 2021, daughter Arcadia in 2024 and son Seldon in 2025. They only began appearing together publicly as a couple earlier this year, having kept the relationship largely private.
‘I loved being that counterbalancing place’
In her post, Zilis said she was proud of the stability she believed she had brought to Musk’s life, writing that she wanted him “to feel the deepest and most stable form of love this world can provide” given what she called “the tumultuous nature of his early life”.
She described their family as Musk’s “safe space”, adding: “We were always… a place that was always full of happiness and love, not war, in contrast to his otherwise militant existence.” She said she would “miss him dearly”.
Zilis also shared screenshots of what she said was their final text exchange, dated 24 September. In the messages, she told Musk it was “wonderful” to see him for breakfast, to which he replied he loved her too. He also apologised for not realising “significant others” were invited to a White House dinner held for Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying he would have brought her had he known.
Despite the hurt, Zilis said she hoped to remain close to Musk going forward. “I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents,” she wrote. “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.”
Where things stand now
Musk is father to 14 known children with four different women, according to People. His first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, born in 2002 with his then-wife Justine Musk, died of sudden infant death syndrome at ten weeks old.
As of Friday, Musk had not publicly responded to Zilis’s statement. The pair are expected to continue co-parenting their four children, though neither has given further detail on what that arrangement will look like.
