Elon Musk’s Longtime Girlfriend Says She’s Been ‘Let Go’

Elon Musk’s relationship with Shivon Zilis appears to have come to a sudden and very public end, with the mother of four of his children revealing that she was apparently “let go” just days after the pair were still exchanging loving messages.

Zilis, a longtime technology executive who has worked closely with Musk and currently serves as an executive at his brain-chip company Neuralink, announced the breakup Friday in an unusually personal post on X.

“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,” Zilis wrote.

The post came after an account that tracks activity on X noted that Musk had stopped following Zilis on the social media platform he owns.

Zilis did not publicly explain what caused the relationship to end, and Musk had not issued his own public account of the split as of Friday afternoon.

But Zilis made it clear that, from her perspective, the breakup was abrupt.

She even shared what appeared to be screenshots of recent text messages between herself and Musk showing that the two were exchanging affectionate messages only about a week earlier.

In one conversation dated Sept. 24, Zilis told Musk that she loved him.

Musk appeared to respond in kind.

The texts also shed new light on Musk’s appearance at the White House state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sept. 24.

Musk attended the high-profile Washington event without Zilis.

According to a screenshot Zilis shared, Musk later told her that he had not realized guests were permitted to bring significant others.

“I didn’t realize that this Xi dinner included significant other (Beijing one did not) or I would have invited you,” Musk wrote in the exchange shared by Zilis.

Her response did not suggest there was any obvious tension at the time.

“Aw, that means so much to me,” she replied.

The White House confirmed that the Sept. 24 dinner was held for Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, and included business leaders and government officials.

Eight days later, Zilis was publicly discussing the end of her relationship with Musk.

An Emotional Goodbye

Rather than attacking Musk in her breakup announcement, Zilis devoted much of the message to describing what she believed she had brought to his life.

“I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness,” she wrote.

Zilis also described her home and family as a place where Musk could escape the pressure surrounding his businesses and public life.

She said she had tried to provide him with a sense of calm and stability and said she would miss him “dearly.”

Zilis also emphasized that the biggest result of their relationship was their four children.

“I am so beyond grateful for our children and they make every single day the best day of my life!” she wrote.

Despite the apparent breakup, she said she hopes the two can remain close enough to successfully raise their children together.

“I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents,” Zilis wrote.

She concluded by saying she was hurting but still cared deeply about Musk and wished him happiness.

A Cryptic Message Came Days Earlier

There may have been another hint that something had changed.

Days before announcing the split, Zilis posted the brief message, “New day, new life.”

She did not explain what the post meant, and there is no confirmation that it referred to Musk.

In hindsight, however, the timing has attracted attention following Friday’s announcement.

The breakup also marks an unusually public moment in a relationship that remained largely private for years.

Musk and Zilis’ personal relationship originally became public because of their children, rather than through a traditional announcement that they were dating.

Their twins, Strider and Azure, were born in 2021.

Court documents revealing the twins’ existence later became public in 2022.

Zilis subsequently had a daughter, Arcadia, with Musk and later announced that the pair had welcomed another son, Seldon Lycurgus.

When Zilis publicly revealed Seldon in February 2025, Musk responded to her announcement with a heart emoji.

The couple therefore share four children.

From Artificial Intelligence to Musk’s Inner Circle

Long before their romantic relationship became public, Zilis had established a career in technology and artificial intelligence.

A Yale graduate, she worked at IBM before becoming an investor at Bloomberg Beta, where her work centered heavily on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

She later became involved with OpenAI, the artificial intelligence organization Musk helped establish in 2015.

Zilis subsequently worked on Tesla projects and became director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company.

Exactly when her relationship with Musk became romantic has never been particularly clear.

Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk described an unconventional beginning to their decision to have children.

According to the biography, Musk offered to serve as a sperm donor after Zilis decided she wanted to become a mother. Zilis told Isaacson that choosing Musk instead of an anonymous donor was an easy decision because of how highly she regarded him.

The nature of their relationship apparently evolved later.

Four Children and a Complicated Family Tree

The twins Zilis shares with Musk were born during a period when Musk was also involved with musician Grimes.

Musk and Grimes share three children.

When news of Musk and Zilis’ twins became public, it initially generated tension between the two women. Grimes later said publicly that she and Zilis had spoken and resolved their differences.

“We respect each other a lot, and we’re excited to become friends and have the kids grow up together,” Grimes wrote in 2023.

Musk has fathered children with several women over the years, making his family life a recurring subject of public attention.

Reuters reported in March 2025 that Seldon was Musk’s 14th publicly known child after Zilis announced the boy’s existence.

What Happens Now

For now, most of what is publicly known about the breakup comes directly from Zilis.

Musk has not publicly explained why the relationship ended or challenged her description of events.

That distinction is important because Zilis’ statement makes clear how she experienced the breakup, but it does not establish Musk’s reasons for ending the relationship.

The two also remain connected through far more than a romance.

They share four young children, and Zilis remains professionally connected to Neuralink, one of Musk’s most ambitious companies.

Whether their professional relationship changes following the split is not yet known.

Zilis, at least publicly, appears to be signaling that she wants their personal relationship to transition into a cooperative one centered on their children.

Her message ended without accusations or an angry farewell.

Instead, she wrote that despite being hurt, she was still “cheering for his happiness.”

For a relationship that spent years developing largely outside public view, its apparent ending has now become strikingly public — complete with private texts, an unfollow on X and a deeply personal farewell from one of the people who has remained closest to Musk both personally and professionally.