Into each life some rain must fall. That simple statement is true for all of us, even billionaires, and while they may have more resources than the rest of us when it comes to dealing with tragedies, that doesn’t necessarily make them any easier to handle.
Elon Musk might seem like an unlikely candidate for tragedy, but it did indeed strike him and his wife , Justine, in 2002.
Just ten days after they had their first child, a son named Nevada Alexander, he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which can be caused by any number of issues, including brain abnormalities, respiratory sickness and low birth weight, among others.
The death hit both Elon and Justine hard – the couple simply went out one night, and when they came home their baby had stopped breathing – but that didn’t help them from having a family.
They went on to have twins, Griffin and Xavier, just two years later, but that’s not to say the tragedy didn’t have an effect on Musk, who made it clear he didn’t want to talk about Nevada’s death.
Justine grieved openly, however, and this created problems that were likely impossible to anticipate. Elon considered her grieving “emotionally manipulative,” Justine would say during a subsequent interview, and after visiting an IVF clinic shortly thereafter she had twins and then triplets.
The scars created by their different ways of handling the tragedy likely played at least a small part in the later problems with their marriage.
Musk’s way of dealing with his infant son’s death was to move forward, and Justine also noted that the billionaire doesn’t do well in “dark places,” and that she considered this a survival mechanism of his.
While it’s certainly unfair to psychoanalyze Musk’s subsequent behavior, he definitely has exhibited some odd traits when it comes to both his children and his relationships.
He divorced Justine, then married and divorced British actress Talulah Riley twice, and his latest dive into the world of love and romance had him with Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, the singer who became pregnant and delivered yet another son in May of 2020.
That was when Elon’s behavior went off the rails and became at least somewhat eccentric, if not downright bizarre.
He named the baby boy an unpronounceable series of letters and numbers that were based on a song from Grimes album, but unfortunately the name was illegal under California law, so they had to go with a simpler series of letters instead.
Musk recently revealed that the correct pronunciation of the boy’s name is X-Ash-A-Twelve, which should create all sorts of interesting issues for the boy as he goes through school and various other rites of childhood passage.
Musk is certainly young enough to father more children, and who knows what kinds of odd names he’ll come up with, although he has separated from Grimes.
It’s all part of the proverbial box of chocolates that is Elon Musk, as he continues on his odd journey through life while endeavoring to accumulate as much fame, money and spectacular achievements as he can along the way.
