# Musk fires back at the 'deadbeat dad' line

> A podcast host called Elon Musk the world's biggest deadbeat dad, and his reply turned a family-values argument into a public brawl.
- Title: Musk fires back at the 'deadbeat dad' line · Newsweek
- Summary: A podcast host called Elon Musk the world's biggest deadbeat dad, and his reply turned a family-values argument into a public brawl. Musk's defense was about…
- Keywords: elon musk, media, parenting, politics, podcasts, Musk, fires, back, 'deadbeat, dad', line, Newsweek
- Source: Newsweek — https://newsweek.com/elon-musk-kids-jennifer-welch-deadbeat-dad-12436387
- Published: 2026-09-13T16:10:17+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: elon musk, media, parenting, politics, podcasts
## The line that started it
On the podcast IHIP News, host Jennifer Welch called Elon Musk "the biggest deadbeat dad on the globe" during a segment about family values and politics.

> the biggest deadbeat dad on the globe
## Her real target was the standard
Welch argued Republicans should judge Musk by the same family-values yardstick they apply to political opponents, and asked whether conservatives were willing to do it.
## Millions of views later
The X account Defiant L's clipped the segment. It racked up millions of views and reached Musk himself, who rarely lets a viral insult sit.

> has been spewing in petri dishes all over the globe
## Musk answers with money
He replied on X: "No one has provided for their children more than I have." Then he added that Welch was "as ugly on the inside as she is on the outside."

> No one has provided for their children more than I have
## Providing is not parenting
Thousands of reactions piled in, and the fight shifted to the gap Musk's answer skipped: writing checks versus actually showing up.
## Fourteen kids, four mothers
Musk has fathered at least 14 children with four women: six with Justine Wilson, three with Grimes, four with Shivon Zilis, and at least one with Ashley St. Clair.
## The critics inside the family
His estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson has called him a "serial adulterer" and "not a family man," while St. Clair says he pressured her to sign an NDA about their child.

> serial adulterer
## Key takeaway

Musk's defense was about money, and the argument that followed was about everything money doesn't cover.