‘He’s crazy and he’s very powerful’: Why Elon Musk – the richest man in the world – could also be the most dangerous… as former partners and friends tell ALISON BOSHOFF what he’s really like… and his world domination plans
A new almost four-hour documentary titled "Musk", which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, features former partners and associates of Elon Musk making startling claims about the billionaire's beliefs and business practices. The film, discussed in this piece by journalist Alison Boshoff, portrays the Tesla and SpaceX chief as harbouring apocalyptic views and pursuing an active plan to father numerous children with Right-wing women ahead of an anticipated "civil war", while also allegedly making misleading claims to inflate his companies' stock value.
Among the claims made by former partners, first wife Justine Wilson and ex-girlfriend Ashley St Clair both say Musk sought to create a "legion" of children, with St Clair alleging he referred to messages from women offering to bear his children as a "Gatling gun of sperm". The documentary also revisits disputed claims about Tesla's self-driving technology, linked to around 60 US deaths, a decade-long delay on colonising Mars, and a 2013 pledge on battery-swapping stations that reportedly earned Tesla $11 billion (£8 billion) in Californian carbon credits despite never being widely rolled out. It further raises concerns that Musk's roughly 11,000 Starlink satellites and data gathered during his brief tenure leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could be used to influence the upcoming US mid-term elections.
- New documentary "Musk" premieres at Venice, alleging troubling behaviour and lies.
- Ex-partners claim he wants many children before a feared "civil war".
- Film raises concerns over Starlink, DOGE data and election interference.
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Elon Musk is the world's richest person, best known as the boss of electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, as well as owning the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and satellite internet service Starlink. He briefly led a Trump administration cost-cutting body called the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. His business empire and close ties to US politics mean his personal views and conduct can carry real-world weight.
The background to this story is a new documentary called "Musk", which has just premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It draws on interviews with people who know him personally, including former partners, and covers claims about his political beliefs, his approach to fatherhood, and how he has run his companies.
Two women who have had children with Musk, his first wife Justine Wilson and former girlfriend Ashley St Clair, are among those who speak in the film. The documentary also looks again at long-running questions about Tesla's self-driving technology, its Mars colonisation ambitions, and past regulatory and financial claims, as well as the reach of his Starlink satellites and DOGE's data access, at a time when concerns are being raised about their possible influence on US politics.