An unnamed New York woman has sued the Georgia company that owns Us Weekly for defamation after the publication ran her photograph and misidentified her as the mother of Elon Musk’s twins.
In a federal suit filed July 3, the woman, identified in the suit only as “Jane Doe,” alleges that being identified last year as the unmarried mother of Musk’s children had caused her public embarrassment, unwanted scrutiny and unwarranted stress. She also alleged the stress led to reduced performance at work and the need for therapy.
The suit alleges the publication ran a photo of her along with two articles in July 2022 incorrectly identifying her as Shivon Zilis, a woman who, Us Weekly said, was mother to twins fathered by the controversial billionaire owner of Twitter and top executive of Tesla. The articles were posted on Us Weekly’s website and a link to one of them was published on Us Weekly’s Instagram account, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The articles and Instagram story were viewed within days by millions of people, according to the court filing.
“But there was a problem,” the filing said. “The woman in the photo was not Zilis; it was ... a married woman who has never even met Musk, let alone had children with him.”
Us Weekly is owned by 360Accelerated Holdings, which is based in Smyrna. Efforts to reach the company were not successful Friday. A message left with Us Weekly was not immediately returned.
The woman said she was for a time the roommate of Shivon Zilis, but has never met Musk. Moreover, she is married to another man.
In an unusual move, lawyers for the woman have asked the court to allow her to remain anonymous because of “the substantial, stigmatizing, and irreparable harm” she would suffer if her real name were publicly revealed.
The woman, represented by several attorneys, including G. Taylor Wilson of Atlanta, argues that the mistake was malicious, that Us Weekly had seen photos of Zilis and knew that the photo was someone else.
“They either knowingly disregarded the dissimilarity or recklessly published Doe’s photo instead, all in a rush to capitalize on the frenzy of public interest in Musk’s twins and their mother,” the filing says.
The woman overheard strangers gossiping about her supposed connection to Musk. Her husband was also “teased for marrying ‘Elon’s ex,’” the filing said. She was forced to live “in constant fear of the stigma and embarrassment from her unmerited association with a story that falsely portrayed her as having cheated on her husband.”
Eventually, she was able through attorneys to reach the publication, which the complaint said acknowledged the error and swapped out the woman’s picture for a photograph of Zilis.
But the damage was done and even worse, the images and misidentification will be virtually impossible to scrub from every corner of the Internet, so she will have to live with the mistake indefinitely, the filing said. “Us Weekly’s bare acknowledgment of wrongdoing is cold comfort to Doe, who has suffered significant reputational, psychological, and economic injury.”
The woman is asking for a jury trial and unspecified financial damages.
Us Weekly is owned by 360Accelerated Holdings, which is based in Smyrna. Efforts to reach the company were not successful Friday. A message left with Us Weekly Friday was not returned.
People who have a public persona must show “actual malice” to win a defamation suit, said Greg Lisby, professor emeritus at Georgia State University, who taught journalism law for decades and has written a textbook on the subject.
The woman’s filing describes her as “a scrupulously private person who has never sought any kind of celebrity status.”
The twins were born in November 2021 to Zilis, who works at a Texas company controlled by Musk. Stories about the birth broke in July 2022 and Musk eventually acknowledged that he was their father .
The twins were born shortly after Musk and his now-former partner, the musician known as Grimes, had a baby via surrogate. Musk is the acknowledged father of 10 children.
And to ask for punitive damages, even a non-public person must prove malice on the part of the publication, Lisby said. “There are not many defamation cases, because the standards make it so difficult to win. The jury will need to know, did Us Weekly have reason to know that she was not the woman who gave birth to those twins?”
Her request to stay nameless adds a unique wrinkle, Lisby said. “I’m at a loss. I have never heard of anyone being allow to claim anonymity in a suit for defamation.”
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