Vivian Jenna Wilson, the transgender daughter of Elon Musk, said Thursday in her first interview that he was an absent father who was cruel to her as a child for being queer and feminine.
Wilson, 20, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, responded to comments Musk made Monday about her and her transgender identity. On social media and in an interview posted online, Musk said she was “not a girl” and was figuratively “dead,” and he alleged that he had been “tricked” into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16.
Wilson said that Musk hadn’t been tricked and that, after initially having hesitated, he knew what he was doing when he agreed to her treatment, which required consent from her parents.
Musk’s recent statements crossed a line, she said.
“I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged,” Wilson said in a phone interview. “Which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.”
Thanks for your perspective, but it doesn’t work for me that way.
Yes, I’m trying my best to become a better person tomorrow, but it doesn’t come from nowhere. I did a lot of awful stuff, it was me, not someone who’s dead right now. It was me all the time.
When I try to rationalize that behavior I always find myself in a loop where I jump from “nope, it was not me, it’s my parents’ influence” to “I’ve been rude to my gf today because I haven’t had enough sleep”. That’s a victim mindset and I’ve been in therapy for far too long to relapse today just because I want to feel good about myself.