Elon Musk’s Transgender Daughter: Petition, Not a Lawsuit

Elon Musk’s transgender daughter did not sue him. In April 2022, the day after she turned eighteen, Vivian Jenna Wilson filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court to legally change her name and gender marker under California’s standard adult name-change procedure. It was an uncontested filing, not litigation against her father, and a judge granted it that June.¹

What Was Actually Filed

Wilson submitted her petition on April 18, 2022, in Santa Monica. She asked the court to recognize her new name, Vivian Jenna Wilson, and to issue a new birth certificate listing her gender as female. In the section explaining her reasons, she wrote that the change reflected “Gender Identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”¹ The surname she chose, Wilson, is her mother Justine’s family name.

That single sentence about her father is why the case sometimes gets called a lawsuit online. It reads like an accusation, and it named Musk directly. But nothing in the petition asked a court to do anything to him. He was not a party. No damages were sought. No custody, support, or inheritance question was in front of the judge.

How the Court Handled It

No one filed an objection. A hearing that had been placed on the calendar was taken off. On June 22, 2022, Judge Rafael Ongkeko signed the order, which stated: “There being no objections, the petition for change of name, recognition of change of gender, and issuance of new birth certificate is granted.”²³

Under California law, adults can petition for a name change and a corrected birth certificate reflecting gender without a contested hearing. That is the procedure Wilson used. The unusual element was the identity of her father and the language she chose, not the mechanism.

Why People Call It a Lawsuit

The confusion has two sources. The first is the wording of the petition itself, which read as a public break with a famous parent. Coverage focused on that line, and the phrasing traveled further than the procedural details did. The second is the sustained public conflict between Wilson and Musk that followed, which has produced headlines that sound like disputes even though none of them have gone to court.

Wilson has said she stopped speaking to her father in 2020, when she was sixteen, and has been financially independent since. She came out as transgender that year in an Instagram post and, already estranged from Musk, obtained parental consent for hormone therapy from her mother. California requires parental consent for gender-affirming care for minors.⁴⁵

The Dispute Over Consent for Her Medical Care

Some readers searching for a lawsuit are actually looking for the fight over who signed what. In a July 2024 video interview with Jordan Peterson, Musk said he had been “tricked” into signing medical authorization documents when Wilson was sixteen, claiming he did not understand what was happening and had been told she might commit suicide without treatment.⁶

Wilson rejected that account. She told NBC News that when she brought Musk the forms, he read them twice, once with her and once alone, before signing. “He was not by any means tricked,” she said. “He knew the full side effects.”⁶ No legal case arose from either the treatment or the disagreement about consent. The dispute has played out in interviews, not in filings.

The Peterson Interview and Wilson’s Response

In the same Peterson interview, Musk referred to Wilson by her birth name, said “I lost my son, essentially,” and stated that she had been “killed by the woke mind virus.” He described gender-affirming care for minors as “child mutilation and sterilization” and said doctors who provide it should “go to prison.”⁷⁶

Wilson answered on Threads within days. She called Musk’s version of her childhood “entirely fake” and wrote, “He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there.” Responding to the claim that she was effectively dead to him, she wrote, “I look pretty good for a dead bitch.”⁸ She later told NBC News that speaking publicly had been “the most cathartic moment of my entire life”: “If you’re going to lie about me, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.”⁶

The Family Background

Wilson is one of five children from Musk’s first marriage, to Canadian author Justine Wilson. The couple married in January 2000, and Musk filed for divorce in 2008. Musk said in 2010 that custody after the divorce was “split evenly.”⁹

Wilson has said the joint arrangement overstated her father’s actual presence. In a 2024 NBC News interview, she estimated he was around 10 percent of the time, with her mother and nannies doing most of the caregiving. She described him as “cold,” “uncaring,” and “narcissistic,” and said he had harassed her during childhood for showing feminine traits. She recalled a car ride in fourth grade when Musk “yelled at me viciously because my voice was too high.”⁶

Where Things Stand

Wilson has not spoken to her father since 2020 and has said she has no interest in reconciliation or in inheriting from him. At a 2025 Teen Vogue Summit she told the audience, “I’m financially independent. I’m making money now.”¹⁰ She has lived with roommates in Los Angeles, studied in Tokyo, and briefly attended Temple University’s Tokyo campus.¹¹

She made her runway debut at New York Fashion Week in September 2025 walking for Alexis Bittar, and has since walked for Prabal Gurung, Chrishabana, and Gucci. Rihanna cast her in a Savage x Fenty campaign, and she has appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan.¹²¹³ She uses her platform to advocate for transgender rights, particularly access to gender-affirming care for minors, which she has said was “medically necessary” in her own case.⁴

At a Desigual event in June 2026, a reporter asked her, “Your father’s the best, no?” She said “Sorry?” and walked away.¹⁴ That has been the shape of things since 2020: a public fight conducted through interviews and posts, not a lawsuit, and a single court filing that changed her name and left her father with no formal role in her life.

1
People. Elon Musk’s Daughter Granted Name and Gender Change
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NBC News. Elon Musk’s Daughter Granted Name and Gender Change
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USA Today. Elon Musk’s Daughter Granted Name and Gender Change
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Teen Vogue. Vivian Jenna Wilson on Elon Musk and Trans Youth
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Tampa Bay Times. California Transgender Children Parental Consent
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NBC News. Elon Musk’s Transgender Daughter Vivian Wilson Interview
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Quartz. Elon Musk Transgender Child Woke Mind Virus Peterson
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Them. Vivian Jenna Wilson Responds on Threads
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People. Who Is Justine Musk, Elon Musk’s Ex-Wife
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E! Online. Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Wilson Details Finances
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The Independent. Elon Musk Daughter Vivian Wilson
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Vanity Fair. Vivian Wilson Gucci Milan Fashion Week
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Harper’s Bazaar. Vivian Wilson NY Fashion Week Debut Runway Looks
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BuzzFeed. Vivian Jenna Wilson Leaves Interview After Elon Musk Question