Whoopi Goldberg has upset some fans of the “The View” after she and co-host, Joy Behar made fun of Elon Musk’s 4-year-old son.
A clip of Goldberg and her “The View” co-hosts was posted on X on Feb. 12. Upon returning from commercial break, Goldberg read the teleprompter to lead to their panel’s next topic of discussion.
“Yesterday Elon Musk took his son X to a press conference,” she said, but was interrupted by Behar who questioned the child’s name.
“X?” Behar asked in confusion.
Goldberg quickly responded to Behar saying, “I did not name the child, and I don’t want to hear anymore mess about our names,” seemingly referring to Black people who are discriminated against for having unique names.
‘Any who,” she continued, “he took little X…” followed by Behar, who cut in again saying, “And little Instagram.”
Behar’s joke was in reference to Musk taking ownership of Twitter and renaming it X.
In 2020, Musk revealed to Joe Rogan that X is short for X Æ A-Xii, which is pronounced Ex-Ash-Aye-Twelve.
Under a post of the “The View” segment, furious social media users condemned the hosts for making fun of a 4-year-old child’s name.
One person tweeted, “What in the hell is wrong with them old ragged B…… ! Why would I use a little Child to target his father🤬sh-t like that pisses me off.”
Another wrote, “So, it’s OK to bully toddlers now???? Good to know….”
A third said, “Wow — mean AND dumb. They really have no bottom to their nastiness.”
Musk and singer Grimes welcomed X Æ A-Xii in May 2020. That same month, she explained the meaning behind his name with a post on X, then known as Twitter.
Grimes wrote that X is “the unknown variable, and then “Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence).” She added that, “A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent.” At the end she wrote, “(A=Archangel, my favorite song)” and that she is a “metal rat.”
Originally X’s name was spelled A-12 at the end before Musk and Grimes changed it to A-Xii.
The former couple, who dated from 2018 to 2022, have two other children as well: their daughter Exa Dark Sideræl was born in December 2021 via surrogate and they also had a second son together in 2023.
Also in 2013, Musk and Grimes were embroiled in a custody battle over their children. Musk filed in Texas and Grimes countersued in California to “establish parental relationship.” By 2024, the two settled the dispute in Texas but the status of the countersuit in California is unknown.
In 2024, Grimes revealed in an X post that during their fight for custody Musk withheld “one of [her] babies for 5 months,”
Musk has fathered 12 children in total: Six come from his first wife Justine Wilson, but their first child died as an infant. They welcomed a set of twins and triplets after. Then came his three children with Grimes. In between his relationship woes with Grimes, Musk had more children with an executive at his company Neuralink. The woman, named Shivon Zilis, had three children with Musk — a set of twins and a third child — in the years of 2021 and 2024.
