Justine Wilson – Everything About Elon Musk’s First Wife
Justine Wilson is the first wife of Elon Musk and the two have five children together.
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At one time, Justine Wilson was married to the richest man in the world. Of course, her ex didn’t obtain that moniker while they were married, but he was well on his way up until Justine finally called it quits. During her eight-year marriage, Justine learned a lot about life and she learned a lot about herself. In the years that followed, Justine Wilson learned a lot about what it means to be a family. So, who is Justine Wilson?
JUSTINE WILSON AND ELON MUSK MET IN COLLEGE
Justine Wilson first met her future husband Elon Musk while they were both going to college at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. At the time, Wilson was dealing with the heartbreak of leaving her first true love back home.
As Wilson put it in her 2010 article in Marie Claire, she prefers older men. She prefers men who are “poetic and rebellious and tortured.” None of those things would seem to describe Elon Musk, at least not in the current version.
He was only one year ahead of her in college. Justine Wilson was there for her degree in English literature while Musk, whom Wilson described as “clean-cut, upper-class,” was the “scientific type” who had a knack for commerce, numbers, and logic.
Wilson says she was climbing the steps going to her dorm when Musk suddenly appeared in front of her. He claimed that the two had met at a party, one that she knew she never attended. Would that be a red flag or would that be considered romantic? Wilson claims that Musk eventually admitted he simply had noticed her from across the common room and felt he needed to meet her.
The ever-so-pushy Musk then invited Wilson to ice cream, which she actually said yes to. Instead of going to ice cream, Wilson chose to blow him off by pinning a note to her dorm room door. She had some studying to get to and was doing just that in the student center when she heard a polite cough emanate from behind her. There stood Elon, ice cream in both hands, smiling. “No” was obviously a word Elon didn’t take for an answer.
JUSTINE WILSON AND ELON MUSK BROKE UP AFTER THEY GRADUATED
While Justine Wilson was continuing her English literature studies, Elon Musk would be moving on and moving out. Justine knew Elon was pursuing other women at the time, but he still continued to send her roses.
He would return to Queens from time to time to visit friends and on those visits, Justine would agree to dinner. They would spend plenty of time together and one day, the two were in a bookstore when Justine pointed to one of the bookshelves and told Elon that someday one of her own books would be sitting on that shelf. Justine wanted to be a novelist.
Justine Wilson was impressed by Elon’s reaction. At first, she thought he’d react like most of the boys she had dated – not taking her seriously and only wanting her for her looks and not her competitive nature. But Elon surprised her by telling her that she had a fire in her soul and that “I see myself in you.” They both had the same drive to succeed.
Still, though, they did not stay together. Upon Justine Wilson’s graduation, she moved to Japan to teach English as a Second Language. After that year away, Justine found herself back in Canada, slinging drinks as a bartender and working on her first book. There was also the decision about if she was going to return to Japan or test out grad school. Plus, she was wondering if she passed on a good thing with Elon. One week after telling her sister that “If Elon ever calls me again, I think I’ll go for it. I might have missed something there,” he called.
ELON MUSK AND JUSTINE WILSON WERE MARRIED WHEN HE WAS BUILDING ZIP2
While Justine Wilson was spending her time in Japan, then returning to Canada, Elon Musk was making noise in Silicon Valley. He was sharing an apartment with three roomies in Mountain View, California, and slowly building his empire. First up for Musk was his dot-com company, Zip2. Justine then found herself taking the first of many trips out to California to spend time with Elon.
It was at dinner during one of Justine Wilson’s trips to the Golden State that Musk asked her how many kids she wanted to have. It took her no time at all to tell him she wanted one or two kids, but if she “could afford nannies, I’d like to have four.” He laughed at her saying, “That’s the difference between you and me,” he said. “I just assume that there will be nannies.”
Fast forward two years and Justine Wilson was planning on becoming Justine Musk. Two months prior to the two exchanging vows, Musk told Justine that they had an appointment with a lawyer. This new lawyer was going to help the couple with a “financial agreement” that came about, as Musk told her, because the board of Musk’s new company wanted them to sign it. He told her, “It’s not a prenup.” Were these more red flags?
In a way, Justine Wilson understood. She was now the soon-to-be-wife of a very wealthy man. While he was struggling to build his fortune during their dating period, fortunes changed drastically once they became engaged.
Musk sold his Zip2 company for a cool $20 million. He had purchased a condo and then had it renovated. He bought a McLaren F1 sports car for $1 million, and the wealth just continued to grow.
Justine Wilson, now Musk, was blind to Elon and his maneuverings. She felt he was her “soul mate” and why would she marry him if she did not have her full trust in him? Even when the couple danced at their wedding reception and he told her, “I am the alpha in this relationship,” Justine simply brushed it off.
It wasn’t long after they were married that, according to Justine in her Marie Claire article, Elon’s true colors began to show. He would allegedly overrule Justine constantly, belittling her and telling her the areas he found her “lacking.” She would constantly tell him, “I am your wife, not your employee.” Musk would fire back with, “If you were my employee, I would fire you.”
But money has a way of making people endure. Musk sold PayPal in 2002 and that pushed his net worth well over $100 million. Things were looking good for the Musks; they even had their first child. Then tragedy struck.
THEIR FIRST SON, NEVADA ALEXANDER MUSK DIED AS A BABY
Justine Wilson’s first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, was 10 weeks old when Musk turned a huge profit with the PayPal sale. That week, Nevada was put down for his nap, and like always, he was put on his back to sleep. Sadly, Nevada stopped breathing.
This is around the age that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is most common in male infants. The paramedics arrived but it was too little, too late. They were able to resuscitate little Nevada, but by that time, his brain had been deprived of oxygen for far too long. He was brain dead.
They kept him on life-support for three days before they decided it was best for the boy if they took him off. Justine Wilson was holding her baby boy when he died.
It is hard to imagine how one comes back from a devastating loss of an infant child. Justine Wilson grieved openly, which was the exact opposite of how Elon chose to grieve. As a way to bury her grief, both Justine and Elon decided they wanted another child as quickly as possible. Two months after the sad passing of Nevada, Justine was at an in vitro clinic.
ELON MUSK AND JUSTINE WILSON HAD FIVE CHILDREN
The following five years saw Justine as one busy woman. Not only did she get pregnant, but she first had twins, Xavier and Griffin, then she went out and had triplets, Kai, Saxon, and Damian. Along with that, Justine finally lived up to a promise she had made to herself years ago when she was in college. She finally became a published author.
Justine Wilson’s first book (she published as Justine Musk and in fact continues to call herself Justine Musk) was a fantasy novel titled BloodAngel. Her second novel, Uninvited, was published two years later and Lord of Bones, the sequel to BloodAngel, was published in 2008. Justine has also published a number of short stories. She has also shown in the past that she loves to engage in conversation about books.
THEY WERE DIVORCED IN 2008
Justine’s marriage to Tesla CEO Elon Musk lasted eight years. It was a slow build toward an inevitable end and it took a car accident to finally jolt Justine. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident but as Justine described it, her very first thought right after the two cars came to a stop wasn’t “Thank God no one was hurt.” Instead, her first thought was “My husband is going to kill me.” Right then and there she knew her marriage was over.
Since their 2008 divorce, Justine has been a mom to her five children. The postnup that Elon had Justine Wilson sign came back to bite her big time. It fully protected him from having to dole out anything financial. She took it to court, but eventually, the courts favored Elon.
SHE SUPPORTS HER TRANSGENDER DAUGHTER
Most recently, Justine made the news in support of her transgender daughter. Born Xavier Musk, the now 18-year-old went to court to legally have her name changed to Vivian Jenna Wilson, taking her mother’s maiden name. She also requested that her gender recognition be changed from male to female. Vivian’s relationship with her father has deteriorated to the point that she says, “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
Although Justine does not have an Instagram account, she still finds herself on it from time to time via the #justinemusk hashtag.
Justine is in full support of Vivian. She took to Twitter to voice her support, saying to her, “I’m very proud of you,” to which her daughter replied, “I am proud of myself!”
While Justine Musk continues to be a mom to her kids, she continues to write while trying to lead as private a life as possible. Elon Musk does not make that easy for her to do. Back in 2014, Justine was part of a TEDxOlympicBlvdWomen talk where she spoke about self-worth. Her current website is just as inspirational.
As you can see, Justine is not afraid to speak her mind. She even has thoughts on feminism and men and given all that she has been through, it’s nice to see that her experiences have made her a stronger woman. Hopefully, we will hear much more from her.
