The Mother to 4 of Elon’s Children Takes the Stand

Plus: Remembering Ted Turner

View in browser | Update preferences SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL ACCESS Vanity Fair contributor Tom Dotan is back with another dispatch from the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trial, where one of the most complicated witnesses in the case, Shivon Zilis, was called to testify today. Zilis, a key adviser and operator at Musk’s top companies, is also the mother of four of his children. As the trial barrels into the middle of its second week, Tom observes that a warring pair of narratives is emerging about Zilis’s role at OpenAI. “In one version,” he writes, “she was a Musk asset—first a go-between with the other cofounders, then a mole on the board after his departure, allegedly feeding him intel while he fumed from the sidelines. In another, she was Altman’s unwitting tool, her closeness to Musk giving the OpenAI CEO a back channel to plant ideas while the billionaire was distracted running Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink.” Tom’s latest looks at the way both sides in the trial are trying to use Zilis’s relationship with Musk to make their case. CAITLIN DICKSON, SENIOR EDITOR Why this ad? Musk vs. Altman: Round One BY TOM DOTAN Was the mother to (4 of) Elon’s kids an unwitting agent for OpenAI? READ MORE Get more as a Vanity Fair subscriber Exclusive offer: Subscribe to get one month of Vanity Fair free START YOUR FREE TRIAL More Great Reads CULTURE In the Trenches With LA’s Socialist Comedy Comrades BY MAXWELL ADLER Hannah Einbinder, Joel Kim Booster, and Chris Fleming are turning stand-up sets into political engines for Democratic Socialists of America candidates in Los Angeles. But are they attracting the wrong kind of attention to the cause? READ MORE BOOKS Anna Konkle’s Reality With Her Parents Was a Lot More Complicated BY SAVANNAH WALSH The Emmy-nominated PEN15 writer talks to Vanity Fair about sharing another deeply personal chapter of her complex childhood and how she accidentally helped bring Meghan Markle back to movies. READ MORE ART A First Look at the Met Gala’s “Costume Art” Exhibition BY JOSÉ CRIALES-UNZUETA AND NATE FREEMAN VF art and style correspondents Nate Freeman and José Criales-Unzueta went to check out the new exhibition opening May 10—and attended a star-studded press conference. READ MORE From the Archive Cable Guys BY KIM MASTERS AND BRYAN BURROUGH The furious mudslinging between two titanic media figures—Rupert Murdoch and new Time Warner vice-chairman Ted Turner—over Time Warner’s refusal to carry Murdoch’s Fox News challenge to CNN, obscured the true nature of their game. Behind the personal attacks, VF’s Kim Masters and Bryan Burrough discover, was a serious battle about money and who controls the future of 24-hour news. WATCH NOW Why this ad? Trending Stories A Handy Guide to Elon Musk’s 14 Children (That We Know Of) and Their Mothers The billionaire is a real quantitative guy, it would seem. Remembering Ted Turner The broadcaster, philanthropist, and CNN founder revolutionized television as we know it. MORE FROM VANITY FAIR POLITICS BUSINESS HOLLYWOOD STYLE ROYALS CELEBRITY This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2026. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.