Elon Musk has confirmed he recently had a third baby with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, who works for his brain implant company.

Musk, 52, was accused of keeping the birth of the child - his 12th overall - a secret, after news of the birth was made public through media reports.

The billionaire businessman says there was never any intention to keep it under wraps, but that putting out a press release would also have been 'bizarre', although the baby's name and gender have not been revealed.

'As for "secretly fathered," that is also false. All our friends and family know. Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean "secret"', Musk said to Page Six, about the birth. 

The baby, believed to have been born earlier this year, was mentioned for the first time in a report by Bloomberg entitled 'Elon Wants You to Have More Babies'.

The article discusses the X and Tesla owner's previously shared concerns over declining population rates.   

'A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far,' he has tweeted in the past. 

Musk is a fanatic when it comes to a possibly 'population collapse' which he believes is a bigger risk to the world than global warming.

This was apparent in a recent exchange on X between Musk and the Netherlands' hard-Right leader, Geert Wilders, in which the Dutch politician warned of a collapse of Western values in his country thanks to open borders, a stance shared by other EU populists.

'Agreed,' responded Musk. 'But if the birth rate stays as low as it is [1.6] your Dutch nation will die out by its own hand.'