Elon Musk’s relationship with Shivon Zilis has ended abruptly, with the Neuralink executive saying she was given “no warning” and that “it’s hard to go from in love to let go in a week”.
Zilis, 40, who has four children with the billionaire, described her heartbreak in a lengthy post on X, published hours after users noticed that Musk had stopped following her on the platform.
“I’ve loved him more than life itself and he’s taught me 100 lifetimes of knowledge and made my cup overflow with life meaning, so there is a lot of loss, but luckily we created four beautiful little loves of my life,” she wrote.
She added: “I am so beyond grateful for our children and they make every single day the best day of my life! I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents.”
Zilis said she was grateful to have shown Musk what it felt like to be “deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness”. She also wrote that she would miss him dearly.
Her post included a screenshot of affectionate messages exchanged by the pair only the previous week, appearing to suggest that the split had come as a shock.
“I’m hurting, but care deeply about E and will always be cheering for his happiness,” Zilis wrote. “God speed, Elon, the world is lucky to have you.”
Musk, 55, has not commented publicly on the breakup. A possible early sign of the split came on September 28, when Zilis posted the message: “New day, new life.”
The pair first met through OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab Musk co-founded in 2015. Zilis later worked on Tesla’s Autopilot team from 2017 to 2019 before becoming director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company.
Earlier this year, she gave evidence in Musk’s legal case against OpenAI. She told the jury that their relationship began with “a one-off” at a corporate off-site event before developing into a friendship.
Zilis said she had decided to have children as a single mother when Musk “offered to make a donation” as a platonic sperm donor. Their twins, Strider and Azure, were born through IVF in November 2021. Their third child, Arcadia, was revealed in June 2024, followed by their son Seldon Lycurgus in February 2025.
