The distance between Musk and Vivian became more visible after she came out as transgender in 2020. In 2022, she petitioned a court to change her name and gender, asking to be recognised by her new identity and to no longer be associated with her biological father.
Musk later made public comments about their estrangement, including saying that Vivian was “dead” to him. Justine says those remarks caused their daughter considerable pain.
“Elon was telling her, through telling the world, what that point of view actually was,” she says in the documentary.
Justine also suggests that Musk made little effort to repair the relationship. “If a relationship ruptures, then it ruptures,” she says.
For Justine, the comparison between Vivian’s transition and the death of a child was particularly painful because the family had already experienced the loss of their infant son.
“We actually went through the actual death of an actual child. And what’s really happening here is this is a child growing up,” she recalls saying.
