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Marlon Wayans has slammed Elon Musk for how he treated his transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Wayans – who has a transgender child named Kai, 24 – shared his candid thoughts about the Tesla CEO during a recent appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast. Speaking to host Shannon Sharpe, the actor criticized Musk for his estranged relationship with his daughter, who is a transgender woman.
“I have a Tesla that I’m about to drive over a cliff,” Wayans quipped. “I don’t like what he be saying about his trans child. You don’t treat them babies like that. You don’t disown your babies.”
He concluded by telling Musk: “Love your child!”
Wayans’ comments come after Musk sparked outrage earlier this year for repeatedly misgendering his daughter and saying that she was “killed by the woke mind virus” when she came out as transgender. He made the inflammatory statement during an interview with right-wing commentator Jordan Peterson for The Daily Wire.
In July, Wilson, who is one of Musk’s 12 children, legally changed her name at the age of 18. According to court documents, she made this decision because she does not “wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
After Wayans’s comments went viral, fans praised him for sharing how he supported his son when he came out as transgender. They also applauded the message he ultimately had for Musk.
“‘You don’t treat them babies like that,’ never knew I could like him more,” one person wrote in the comments of a TikTok video, featuring Wayans and Sharpe’s conversation.
“Growing up is realizing that Marlon Wayans is one of the most loving, mature, amazing human beings,” another added.
“This is what a good father and non-toxic masculinity looks like. Thank you for being open and honest Mr. Wayans,” a third wrote.
A fourth commented: “A real man never gives up on a child and always encourages them to be themselves and the best they can be. Respect.”
During his conversation with Sharpe, Wayans shared how he reacted to Kai’s transition, noting it took him about a week to fully understand it.
“I’m proud to say I got there in a week. And I’m sad to say that some parents and some family members, and some people, it’ll take them a lifetime. And they’ll never get to that magical place that I’m at, which is just acceptance,” he said. “That’s still my child, man. That’s my baby.”
Wayans’s comments about Musk also come after Wilson criticized her father for how he talks about transgender people. During an interview with NBC in July, 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.
“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.”
She also accused Musk of being largely absent from her life despite holding joint custody, and of bullying her for being queer and exhibiting feminine traits, including allegedly urging her to lower her voice as a young child.
“I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars – I don’t remember which one – and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,” Wilson said. “It was cruel.”
