Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, harassed women who worked at the company to have sexual relations with him, including a woman to whom he asked “to have his children,” The Wall Street Journal reports this Wednesday, based in sworn statements from an alleged victim and former employees of the firm.
Elon Musk, who also owns Tesla and X (formerly Twitter), had a sexual relationship with a SpaceX employee who started at the company as an intern and was hired shortly after she finished college, says the WSJ.
Musk, whose fortune is valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $198 billion, also maintained relationships with other subordinates and insisted on a woman giving birth to his children, the outlet explains.
The mogul also had a sexual relationship for a month with a third woman who reported directly to him at SpaceX before the two cut ties, according to the report.
Musk met the then-intern in early 2010, when she was a university engineering student. According to the Journal, Musk and the woman went out to lunch after she sent him ideas on how to improve the company. Then came a date, a kiss and, finally, a sexual relationship. The year after her internship, the billionaire had the recent college graduate fly to a resort in Sicily.
Then, he offered her a position on his executive staff, which other employees considered more than strange, given the young woman’s inexperience. Once at the company, she said that Musk showed total disinterest in her work, until she finally changed areas. In 2019, she was laid off as part of a massive downsizing.
The American media cites text messages, emails and other documents. It is based on interviews with more than 48 people, including friends and family of the women, as well as former employees.
In 2013, a woman who worked at SpaceX left the company and later reappeared with a lawyer. She claimed that Musk had asked her on several occasions to have her baby, always according to the Journal.
Musk, the father of 10 children, including twins he shared with another SpaceX employee, Shivon Zilis, has often spoken of the need to increase birth rates to save the human population.
When the woman refused to have babies, Musk refused to raise her salary and began complaining about her job, until she finally left.
A year later, Musk began a sexual relationship with another woman who often spent 17-hour days working alongside the boss.
Before the relationship with Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, accused said woman – the names of none of those involved were not revealed – of having an affair with her husband. She denied the accusation.
The woman alleged that when she went to human resources with Shotwell’s accusation, he retaliated against her by attempting to have her removed from her position.
In 2022, a SpaceX flight attendant accused Musk of exposing himself to her aboard one of his private planes in 2016 and said he offered to “buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage.” The woman later received $250,000 to settle the lawsuit.
In 2021, five former SpaceX employees alleged that a “culture of sexual harassment” existed at the company. One of those women described multiple instances of groping. Another former SpaceX employee filed a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and discrimination.
Musk did not respond to requests for comment from the WSJ. Shotwell said the finance outlet’s email explaining what the article was about “paints a completely misleading narrative” about what it’s like to work for SpaceX, and that it also doesn’t reflect SpaceX’s culture. He also said SpaceX investigates all complaints of harassment and responds appropriately.
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2024-06-13 02:06:24