Aside from Musk, which other American billionaires have had at least nine children?

Text/Jenae Barnes

Elon Musk tweeted in May that the richer the person, the fewer children he has. However, a review of America's billionaires proved him wrong.

Recent court documents show that Musk, 51, secretly gave birth to twins in November 2021 with Shivon Zilis, an executive at Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company he founded, a month before he and his ex-girlfriend Grimes gave birth to a daughter through surrogacy. Prior to joining Neuralink, Zillis was also a colleague at Tesla.

As the world's richest man, Musk is currently worth more than $200 billion. He now has nine children with three women, including a triplet and two pairs of twins. Although he had his 10th child, his first child, the latter died 10 weeks after birth. For a question on Twitter: Why shouldn't people have children for financial reasons? Musk replied, "Kids are worth it. If possible, I am planning to significantly increase childcare benefits at my company. He also added that the Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to some families, and the details will be announced next month. I wish your families a prosperous life and congratulations to those who are already thriving! ”

Musk has been outspoken in support of Americans having more children. In May, he tweeted that the U.S. birth rate had "been below a sustainable minimum for 50 years." Responding to the explosive news about the previously undisclosed twins, Musk tweeted that he was "doing everything in his power to help solve the crisis of underpopulation" and that "the collapse of the birth rate is the greatest danger facing human civilization at the moment."

The conversation attracted many supporters, including TV host Nick Cannon, a father of eight, who tweeted: "I support you, brother!" But others also see Musk's remarks as controversial, given that the U.S. population actually grows every year, in part because of the influx of immigrants and longer lifespans.

Others have criticized the way he fathered. "He rarely sees his children, and knows almost nothing about his children, and this neglect of his parenting of children is shameful." Although unlike Steve Jobs, he at least acknowledged his responsibility for financial support for childcare, but shirked the care and nurturing of these young people. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, director of leadership research at the Yale School of Management, said. Musk's Republicans have used this contempt for family values to glorify his model of American moral character, which is ironic, if not hypocritical. ”

In May, Musk commented that it was rare for him to have so many children among the rich. "Contrary to what many people think, the richer a man is, the fewer children he has. I was a rare exception. Most people I know don't have or only have one child. He tweeted on May 24.

However, according to Forbes' analysis of more than 700 American billionaires, Musk's assumptions are wrong. Statista data shows that the average of these super-rich people has 2.3 children per person, higher than the recent average American average of 1.93 children; if only the billionaires with children are counted, their average number of heirs will jump to 3.1.

Musk is by no means the only billionaire to create a "baby boom" on his own. According to statistics, there are 22 billionaires in the United States who have 7 or more children, including film director Steven Spielberg and New York Mets baseball team owner Steve Cohen. Some of the richest children were born with a partner, such as farris Wilks, a conservative Republican who is pastor of his own church, assembly of Yahweh Seventh Day Church near Cisco, Texas. Others have had children with multiple women, such as Musk and Ron Perelman, who has eight children. And the statistic isn't just about men: Diane Hendricks, America's richest self-made billionaire, has seven children, as does Marian Ilitch, co-founder of Little Caesars Pizza.

Globally, the billionaire with the most children is Suhail Bahwan from Oman, who has 15 children; And in the United States, that ostentatious right belongs to Frank Vander Sloot, Idaho's richest man. He is the founder and CEO of the health company Melaleuca, which manufactures and sells 450 health supplements, and is a father of 14 children. "Parenthood is the most important mission in our lives." He said in an interview with Forbes. "It's also the most valuable mission."

Here are 9 rich Americans with 9 or more children, including Musk:

Frank Vander Sloot

14 children

Growing up on a farm in northern Idaho, Frank Van Derby converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a teenager and is now a large donor to the Republican Party. The 73-year-old has six children with his ex-wife, and eight more from his current wife's last marriage. He has been married to his current wife for 26 years.

Farris Wilks

11 children

The oil magnate and his wife, Jo Ann, have been linked to conservative Christian groups and political action committees and donated $125,000 for Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign and Ted Cruz's 2015 presidential campaign. They also made donations to Trump's re-election campaign.

David Duffield

10 children

Duffield, founder of software companies Workday and PeopleSoft, and his wife, Cheryl, have 10 children (5 of whom they adopted), 7 grandchildren, 4 parrots and 4 dogs. His nonprofit, Maddie's Fund, has distributed $255 million in grants to organizations across the United States focused on animal welfare and eliminating animal sanctuaries. He also made a donation to Trump's presidential re-election campaign.

Jerry Moyes

10 children

In 1966, Moyes and his father founded Swift Transportation with a truck to ship cotton and import steel between Arizona and California. He and his wife, Vickie, have had 10 children together since they married in the 1980s. The Arizona resident also contributed to Trump's re-election campaign.

Nelson Peltz

10 children

The founder and activist investor of the investment fund has 10 children in three marriages, and his current wife is former supermodel Claudia Heffner. The native-born New Yorker's daughter, Nicola, has starred in the movies Transformers and Bates Inn. In May, Nicola and Brooklyn Beckham, the eldest son of English football star David Beckham, held a grand three-day wedding at his father's beachfront villa in Palm Beach. His son, Will Peltz, starred in the film Men, Women and Children. Peltz has also donated to Trump's re-election campaign.

Richard Schulze

10 children

Best Buy founder and chairman Schultz and his wife, Maureen, both lost their first partner to mesothelioma cancer and donated $6 million to Moffitt Cancer Center in 2018.

Fred Smith

10 children

The FedEx founder had 10 children in two marriages. His son Richard will take over as head of the company's express delivery division later this year, and another son, Arthur, is head coach for the NFL Atlanta Falcons; Another son, Cannon, the youngest of his 10 children, played for the University of Memphis' football team and is now COO of H&H Services Group.

Elon Musk

9 children

Musk has a total of 9 children. He had six children together with Canadian writer Justine Wilson during his marriage from 2000 to 2008, but the first child died at 10 weeks. Later, the couple had twins and a triplet. Musk and musician Grimes have two children, the first born in March 2020 and the second in December 2021. In November 2021, he gave birth to twins with Tesla's former colleague Shivon Zillis, who now works at Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company musk founded.

Scott Smith

9 children

Smith reportedly moved his family to Utah when he first started working at Brigham Young University, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a cancer survivor, he helped his two sons, Ryan and Jared, found the computing company Qualtrics, with Jared as chairman. However, the company was sold to SAP by the family in 2019 and later went public in 2021.

The author of this article is a Forbes contributor and the content of this article represents the views of the author only.