WSJ: Elon Musk met with subordinates and persuaded them to give birth to him

The head of Tesla, SpaceX and the social network X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, started relationships with SpaceX employees who were subordinate to him, and persuaded another employee to give birth to him, The Wall Street Journal found out .

WSJ spoke with more than 40 sources: former SpaceX employees, people who know about Musk's relationships with female employees, and friends and relatives of these women. Journalists also studied emails, chats and other documentary evidence of Musk’s relationship with his subordinates.

In particular, WSJ learned about Musk's relationship with an intern who later became a SpaceX employee, who is more than 20 years his junior, and with an employee who worked directly under Musk.

The businessman met his first girl in the early 2010s, when she was a college student and had a summer internship at SpaceX. According to the girl, their relationship lasted about a year.

In 2017, Musk offered her a position at SpaceX, where she would find problems in the company and fix them. Former SpaceX employees told WSJ that the girl was a talented engineer, but they found it strange that a person with such professional experience was offered such a high position.

The girl told her friends that Musk then asked her to meet for a drink and during this meeting touched her breasts, after which he said: “I’m so bad. I shouldn't do this."

She told friends that she was unhappy working at SpaceX because they didn't take her seriously. During this time, she came to Musk’s house many times, and the businessman himself often wrote messages to her. He persistently invited her to his home in the evenings. Once, when Musk called her to his home, he bombarded her with messages, and when she received no response, he wrote: “It’s probably better for us not to meet.”

After these messages, the girl told her friends that she was worried about the businessman’s behavior.

“The fact that I have mild social anxiety caused by impostor syndrome definitely makes this job more difficult. And this is definitely exacerbated by Elon's behavior <...> I think he broke up with me this morning. If I understood his last message correctly. Why are so many of the men in my life so strange,” she wrote to a friend.

As a result, she moved to a less responsible position, and in 2019 she left SpaceX.

The girl refused to talk to reporters. The law firm that represents Musk sent reporters written responses signed by the girl. They said that while working at SpaceX, she had no relationship with Musk, his messages had no romantic overtones, and at his home they watched anime, talked about ramping up production of Tesla Model 3 cars and discussed the “technological future of humanity.” She insists Musk did nothing wrong to her during her time at SpaceX.

Another relationship with a subordinate, about which WSJ became aware, Musk began in the late fall of 2014 and lasted about a month. This employee worked directly for Musk. Shortly before this, due to reshuffles in the company, she decided to end her work at SpaceX and has been finishing her work in recent months. Musk began to communicate more with her, and she began to work more - 17 hours a day - to keep up with the businessman and help him in Tesla affairs, as well as in his personal matters, although her duties concerned only SpaceX.

One day, Musk invited an employee to have a drink at his mansion. That evening they had sex. They met again in the same mansion in December 2014, according to her correspondence with a friend. The businessman warned the employee that if their relationship became known to the public, they would have to say that they started dating after she left the company.

The employee thought she was starting a serious relationship with Musk, but by the end of December she began to feel used, which she told her friends about. When she suggested going out to dinner, Musk told her they couldn't be seen together while his divorce was being negotiated.

When their relationship became strained, Musk instructed subordinates to handle the termination of this employee, WSJ sources say and follows from her emails. The company agreed with her to pay her $85,000, but in order to receive this money, the employee had to sign an agreement not to disclose any information about Musk and waive potential legal claims.

Two days before leaving SpaceX, an employee received a message from Musk late at night: “Shall we have a drink?” She saw him only in the morning and wrote to a friend: “Glad I slept.”

In addition, WSJ learned that Musk repeatedly persuaded one of the SpaceX employees to give birth to him. In the summer of 2013, this employee, who was directly subordinate to Musk, left the company and turned to a lawyer.

Musk, who has at least 10 children, has repeatedly said that the world faces a crisis of underpopulation, that people with high IQs should have children and that Mars must be colonized to protect the human race in the event of a disaster on Earth. He also encouraged his employees to have children. So, in 2021, Musk gave birth to Siobhan Zilis, a high-ranking employee of his company Neuralink.

However, the employee, whom WSJ learned about, rejected Musk’s similar offer. She continued to work for the company, but their relationship began to deteriorate. Sources familiar with the situation say Musk refused to give her a raise and began complaining about her work. As a result of negotiations with SpaceX's human resources department and lawyers, she received more than $1 million in severance pay from the company.

Back in 2022, Business Insider reported on Musk's harassment of a flight attendant who worked for SpaceX. In 2018, she told the company that a businessman showed her his erect penis and asked her to have sex with him, promising to buy her a horse in exchange. After she refused, the company cut her shifts and later paid her $250,000. Musk called the allegations "completely false." Then the businessman was supported by one of the leaders of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell.

After this incident, SpaceX employees sent out a letter within the company in which they were outraged by the attitude of management towards allegations of harassment, which were not taken seriously. Eight employees who were involved in the letter were subsequently fired.

Former SpaceX executives, as well as those fired over the letter, say the company does not apply its own rules to its CEO and that it contributes to a culture of sexism and harassment.

Musk himself did not respond to reporters' requests for comment. Gwynne Shotwell accused the WSJ of being misleading and added that "Elon is one of the best people I know." She assured that SpaceX is investigating all complaints of harassment and taking the necessary measures.