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• Florence Pugh has never been afraid to make a statement on a red carpet.
• She often favors daring looks, from sheer fabric to daring slits.
• The actor has been promoting “East of Eden” in looks with plunging necklines and dramatic cutouts.

Florence Pugh has become a fashion icon as she’s risen to fame.

She often wears bold looks on the red carpet, favoring outfits that turn heads with daring features, including sheer fabrics, plunging necklines, and thigh-high slits.

Take a look at some of the most daring looks the “East of Eden” actor has worn to date.

Florence Pugh wore a tea-length dress with a daring neckline in 2016.

At the Evening Standard Film Awards, Pugh wore an open-back dress from Millie.

The tea-length dress was covered in a multicolored, geometric pattern. 

The halter neckline plunged low, dipping almost all the way to Pugh’s navel. Pointed-toe heels completed the ensemble.

While attending a BBC screening of “King Lear” in 2018, Pugh rocked a sheer top.

Pugh paired high-waisted white trousers with a semi-sheer white top embroidered with flowers.

She wore her hair slicked back, letting the shirt shine.

Pugh stunned in a Schiaparelli dress for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

The light-blue dress had Grecian-style sleeves that gave way to a bodice with a low neckline and pops of red fabric on the side.

A fitted waist flowed into an asymmetrical skirt patterned with flowers, and it featured a thigh-high slit. 

Strappy, red heels tied the outfit together. 

A daring cutout made Pugh’s sophisticated dress for a 2019 “Little Women” event stand out.

Pugh’s pink, gingham Emilia Wickstead dress had a collared neckline, full sleeves, and a pencil-style skirt.

A cutout in the center of the bodice gave the elegant look a modern feel, as did the white, pointed-toe heels Pugh wore with the dress.

Pugh sparkled in a gold Louis Vuitton dress at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscars after-party.

The column dress had a plunging neckline, thigh-high slit, and delicate cutouts on the skirt. 

The gown’s sparkly, gold fabric made it feel glamorous. 

A Miu Miu two-piece fit Pugh like a glove for the 2021 “Black Widow” premiere.

The ensemble consisted of a black top and a matching column skirt.

Rope lacing made of crystals kept the crop top together. The laces hung down to the skirt, almost doubling as a necklace. 

Pugh’s sparkly shoes matched the embellishments on the top. 

Pugh wore a two-piece that was almost entirely sheer to a Tiffany & Co. event.

The Emilia Wickstead set consisted of a crop top and a long column skirt. 

Both featured a mosaic pattern that created cutouts from head to toe. 

Sheer, black gloves, open-toe black heels, and Tiffany & Co. jewelry tied the look together.

Pugh wore a see-through pink dress to a Valentino runway show.

The hot-pink dress had a cinched waist, a tulle skirt, and a high neckline with fabric flowing out of the collar. Pugh wore matching platform heels with the dress.

The bodice was entirely sheer, and though she loved the dress, Pugh later spoke out against men’s reactions to the transparent fabric.

Pugh arrived at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in a three-piece set.

The Valentino set consisted of a bra top, high-waisted shorts, and a button-down, all of which were printed with “Maison Valentino” in funky fonts.

Pugh made the ensemble look effortlessly cool at the festival by adding matching heels, a purple purse, and sunglasses to the outfit.

And later that day, Pugh stunned in a Maison Valentino gown at the red-carpet premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling.”

The black dress was entirely covered in sparkly embellishments and looked like a cross between a bodysuit and a ball gown.

Puffy sleeves and a sweetheart neckline accented an off-the-shoulder neckline.

The corset bodice was sheer on top, while the bottom half was slightly less transparent. A sheer skirt cinched out from the ensemble at the waist, and it flowed into a dramatic train that showed off Pugh’s legs. 

Feathered shoes added to the daring look.

Pugh embraced sheer fabric again at a 2022 reception for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Like her dress for the “Don’t Worry Darling” premiere, Pugh’s short-sleeve Rodarte gown was made of sheer, sparkly fabric. 

The see-through fabric exposed her black underwear and bralette, while bow details on the front of the dress added a playful feel.

In November 2022, Pugh wore another see-through dress to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 13th Governors Awards.

Pugh’s slip-style Victoria Beckham dress had an asymmetrical pattern made of white fabric and sheer panels with silver polka dots.

The transparent fabric covered Pugh’s stomach and legs, while the white fabric curled around her chest and waist for coverage. 

A statement necklace from Tiffany & Co. completed the look.

In December 2022, Pugh wowed in a bright-red Valentino gown.

The dress had a square neckline, a full skirt, and was completely backless.

The bodice also had a square shape, leaving the side of Pugh’s chest exposed.

A dramatic train gave the dress an old-Hollywood feel.

Pugh added a statement headpiece to her outfit for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards in February 2023.

Pugh wore an all-red ensemble designed by Robert Wun to the event.

The strapless top had a voluminous peplum and corset-style ties in the back, and she paired it with a coordinating column skirt.

But the standout feature of the ensemble was Pugh’s red hat, which had a tulle veil that reached the floor. 

Pugh wore a bikini top with a statement coat to the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party in March 2023.

Designed by Valentino, Pugh’s look paired high-waisted black trousers with a coordinating bikini top that was adorned with rosettes.

A pink jacket that doubled as a cape completed the ensemble.

She chose a backless Valentino dress for a New York screening of “A Good Person” in March 2023.

The suit dress had a semi-sheer, white bodice with a collared neckline. The bodice was completely backless and had side cutouts, covering only Pugh’s front.

A black tie cinched at Pugh’s neck, coordinating with the gown’s form-fitting black skirt. 

Pugh wore another sheer Valentino dress at an event for Tiffany & Co. in April 2023.

The sage-green dress had a strapless neckline and off-the-shoulder sleeves, which flowed into a cape.

Most of the dress was made of sheer, gauzy fabric that flowed to Pugh’s feet. A coordinating bodysuit provided coverage. 

Pugh debuted her shaved head with a daring headpiece at the 2023 Met Gala.

Pugh’s white gown for the Met Gala featured a daring cutout tied with a black bow and a matching sky-high feathered headpiece. A giant train added drama to the look.

In her most daring look to date, Pugh arrived at Valentino’s Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week show in an entirely sheer dress.

The floor-length, lilac dress had a fringed, halter neckline that plunged to her navel.

The gown’s billowy fabric, which made up the dress and the cape that flowed out behind her, was totally sheer, with only a thong providing Pugh with any coverage. 

It was also backless, making the gown even more daring.

Pugh wore another sheer look to the 2023 Elle Style Awards.

Designed by Alexander McQueen, the white halter gown resembled a wedding dress, with its mesh base adorned with 3D flowers.

The gown also had a low back and a delicate train.

Pugh wore no bra with the ensemble, making the look even bolder. 

Pugh wore a see-through Valentino gown to the Golden Globes in January 2024.

The A-line red dress had spaghetti straps, a pointed neckline, and a full skirt. 

Floral appliqué adorned the gown’s sheer fabric from head to toe, giving it an ethereal feel. 

In February 2024, Pugh took a futuristic approach to daring fashion at the London premiere of “Dune: Part Two.”

Pugh wore a custom Valentino gown to the premiere.

The figure-hugging, sleeveless dress was made of sparkly brown fabric and featured a train. But the standout element of the dress was its built-in hood, which contrasted with the gown’s cowl neckline that plunged low on her chest. 

Pugh took backless to another level at the “Dune: Part Two” New York premiere the same month.

Pugh’s Valentino gown paid homage to her “Dune: Part Two” character, Princess Irulan, for the film’s New York premiere.

The pleated dress had a high, halter neckline, while the back and sides of the bodice were completely open. She paired the floor-length dress with platform, metallic pumps.

The gown’s color was similar to that of a dress Pugh’s character wears in the film, and she added dramatic makeup to give the look an otherworldly feel.

She wore a nearly completely sheer dress to the Vanity Fair Oscars party in March 2024.

Simone Rocha designed the sheer gown Pugh wore to the famous Oscars after-party.

The base of the dress was completely see-through, with a floral appliqué on the bodice providing a bit of coverage. A peplum flared around her waist, and a train flowed out behind the tea-length skirt, elevating it.

Christian Louboutin shoes and Bulgari jewelry completed the look.

Pugh embraced black lace at a screening of “We Live in Time” in September 2024.

Pugh whipped out another semi-sheer gown to promote “We Live in Time,” selecting a black Christian Dior dress for the film’s New York screening.

The lace gown had ruffled sleeves and a ruffled neckline, which dipped all the way to Pugh’s waist, revealing a black bra beneath. A belt cinched her waist, while the see-through skirt flowed to the floor.

Pugh’s form-fitting skirt for a “Thunderbolts*” photo call in April 2025 had a bold slit.

Pugh kicked off the “Thunderbolts*” press tour in a Francesco Murano set.

Her scooped bra top sat low on her chest, while the coordinating skirt was high-waisted and curved up her torso. A thigh-high slit cut up the skirt, showing off her Christian Louboutin shoes.

The front and back of Pugh’s dress for a “Thunderbolts*” screening in April 2025 both had daring details.

Pugh wore another black look to a screening of “Thunderbolts*” in New York, selecting a Loewe dress.

The latex dress had a high neckline and a sheath-style silhouette. The back was almost completely open, with two thin straps connecting it to the bodice. A thigh-high slit adorned the skirt, almost mirroring the back of the dress.

Pugh’s look for a September 2026 “East of Eden” screening was subtly see-through.

To promote the Netflix adaptation of “East of Eden,” Pugh dove into the Rodarte archives.

Her yellow set was made of thin polka-dot fabric that fell in tiers.

The top had a high neck and a triangular cutout in the center, bisecting the garment. A floral appliqué adorned the top and skirt, which Pugh accessorized with pointed-toe heels.

A plunging neckline added a bold twist to her gown at the New York premiere of the Netflix limited series.

Vivienne Westwood custom-designed Pugh’s gown for the New York “East of Eden” premiere.

The dress had the same color scheme as her Rodarte look, with a yellow bodice and a gray skirt. The form-fitting top had an exaggerated sweetheart neckline that dipped low on Pugh’s torso. A zipper flowed down the center, with sparkly embellishments framing it.

Her detached sleeves were puffy, while the silk skirt had subtle gathering to add dimension.

• In August, Meta launched AI tools geared toward small businesses seeking marketing help.
• Three small business owners shared how they use AI tools for marketing — and their limitations.
• Testing and organic content remain crucial for small businesses amid the rise of AI marketing tools.

Marketing is an integral part of running a small business, but building a successful strategy can be time-consuming for owners. Can AI tools geared toward marketing help?

Meta thinks so. In August, it announced new AI features for small business owners, designed to help audit organic Facebook and Instagram posts and ads, measure businesses’ performance against similar brands, and offer strategy suggestions to improve marketing efforts. Solo business owners have also tapped generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to assist with time-intensive marketing tasks like customer outreach and content ideation.

We asked three small business owners about how they think through and implement marketing strategies in the AI age.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

How do AI-assisted tools fit into your overall marketing strategy?

Andrea Garcia Fry, cofounder at baby and children’s clothing brand Arquia: Effective paid media requires an understanding of your brand positioning, tone of voice, business goals, and customer journey.

I prefer using ChatGPT or Claude because I can provide fuller context and use them as thought partners. Meta’s tool will be valuable if it genuinely learns the business rather than simply recommending more automation or spending.

Catalina Parker, founder of the coaching business Relatable Nonprofit: I’ve tried implementing recommendations directly from Meta Ads Manager, and many of them either didn’t work or weren’t right for my business. Meta benefits when advertisers spend more money on its platform.

I’d rather have a tool that helps me independently analyze the data across my entire marketing ecosystem instead of relying solely on Meta’s interpretation of what I should do next.

Bonnie Gurry, CEO at climate-friendly investing platform GreenPortfolio: Tools like Meta AI can be great operational time-savers. It’s like we now have a junior analyst to run quick diagnostics, spot creative trends, and crank out copy variations in seconds. Similar tools from other ad networks have saved us hours of manual dashboard digging so we can focus on core growth strategy.

But you can’t let the platform mark its own homework. It’s a great assistant for speed, but I wouldn’t cede capital allocation or brand positioning decisions to it without validating that its recommendations align with business objectives.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to paid marketing?

Garcia Fry: Paid marketing can become expensive very quickly. Meta needs time and budget to learn who the right customer is, which means a meaningful portion of your investment can be spent during that learning process without producing the results you expected. After that, success isn’t guaranteed.

Finding the right customer on Meta has been difficult for us, especially with a limited budget. For Arquia, strengthening our brand foundations and organic marketing has brought us better results than our paid campaigns.

Parker: Understanding performance across the entire funnel. A lot of people talk about paid ads as the way to scale growth. I learned the hard way that simply putting more money into a campaign because the leads are cheap is not necessarily the answer.

You have to track what happens after someone sees the ad. Are they clicking? Opting into the lead magnet? Engaging with your content? Booking a call? Eventually buying?

With AI-generated content, bots, and increasing skepticism online, trust feels harder to earn. I’m trying to combine paid acquisition with something much more old-fashioned: consistently nurturing people and building real relationships over time.

Gurry: Knowing why an ad worked. Was it the opening hook, the visual, or just a warm retargeting pool?

Isolating those creative variables to figure out what actually drove performance, without burning through capital, is a constant balancing act.

What is a tool or strategy helping you succeed?

Garcia Fry: When I run Meta ads, I start with what works organically. If a piece of content resonates with our audience, I may boost it or adapt it into a paid campaign.

I also use ChatGPT or Claude to audit the setup, interpret the data, and identify possible tests, but I still make the final decisions.

Parker: I’ve learned not to assume that every recommendation from an expert will work for my business. Testing has been more valuable: knowing which numbers matter, tracking them consistently, testing changes, and using the results to decide what to do next.

One of my best-performing campaigns has been running for more than two years with very few changes. It’s a simple text-based ad, nothing fancy. It continues to perform despite all the advice about constantly producing new formats.

Gurry: We don’t need fancy, over-complicated tools. We aim for a clear, back-to-basics look at which ads bring in real clients over time.

Quick clicks can burn through a marketing budget with little return on investment if you are not careful. Clicks are great, but not if they aren’t reaching your potential customer.

And don’t outsource strategy to an AI tool — especially one developed by the network that’s selling you ads.

• A Pentagon watchdog says screening breakdowns may be sending operators back to duty with brain injuries.
• Crew members don’t always report symptoms and skip follow-up appointments.
• Traumatic brain injuries can cause degraded operational decision-making, among other problems.

A Pentagon watchdog warns in a new report that some of the US Navy’s elite special warfare boat crews may be returning to dangerous missions and activities with undiagnosed brain injuries due to breakdowns in reporting, screening, and follow-ups.

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, SWCCs, are an elite special operations force. Aboard fast boats, they support and execute combat missions, such as transporting other special operators, interdicting vessels, and conducting reconnaissance at sea.

“SWCCs repeatedly endure severe wave-slamming forces,” the Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General wrote in a report released this week.

“Without an objective, standardized testing mechanism to identify injuries early, symptoms may be masked as routine fatigue,” the report said. “Sending service members back to high-risk maritime and riverine environments with undiagnosed [mild traumatic brain injury] can result in degraded operational decision-making.”

It added that when “operational and training tempos take precedence over medical follow-ups, SWCCs miss critical appointments,” making it more difficult to effectively evaluate their conditions.

Traumatic brain injuries are defined as significant health issues caused by external forces like explosions or wave-impact events that can, over time, cause confusion, disorientation, slowed thinking, memory loss, or loss or decreased levels of consciousness.

The IG report said SWCCs haven’t been regularly filling out TBI exposure forms; a medical officer told investigators that crews often don’t fill them out because the paperwork takes hours, affecting rest, recovery, and preparation for future missions. The report said command didn’t enforce compliance.

Crew members who have suffered these kinds of injuries said they often don’t report their symptoms — or attend follow-up appointments — because of their high-tempo schedules and concerns that recovery time could put more work on other service members.

The military’s primary concussion screening tool, the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation, Version 2, or MACE-2, didn’t appear documented in cases investigators reviewed. Among medical records tied to reported TBI exposures between 2020 and 2026, the investigators found no completed MACE-2 assessments.

The IG report said that the problem is that corpsmen have to first make a subjective decision about whether the symptoms they are seeing are caused by a concussion or are the byproduct of seasickness, dehydration, or sleep deprivation, and there’s no set standard for that.

In instances where screening is administered, crews told investigators that they can “mask TBI and concussion symptoms by memorizing portions of the MACE-2, potentially reducing the accuracy of the assessment.” While medical personnel can alter the test questions to make them much less predictable, this practice isn’t required or regularly implemented.

Investigators also found almost no evidence that the operators received regular follow-up care.

“Without follow-up care after sustaining a TBI, a SWCC could return to work too soon,” the report explained. The findings conclude that crews may have returned to duty while still suffering from undiagnosed or untreated TBIs, which could increase the risk of long-term ailments and negatively impact readiness.

The IG report cites one crew member who told the office “that during high operational tempos, a fear exists of being removed from their operational duty on the boat, which would shift the workload to another detachment.” These special boat teams work on a 24-month deployment cycle, including six months of unit-level training.

“With limited manning and four troops in different stages of the cycle, SWCCs feel they cannot consistently report their symptoms without impacting deployment exercises,” the report said.

These experiences were corroborated by medical personnel, who said rest and recovery are difficult for teams and members often don’t attend follow-up appointments because of their demanding schedules.

The office recommended the establishment of a standardized, objective TBI checklist, which is being developed with an estimated completion date of December 2027.

Similarly, the office said that roadblocks preventing crew members from receiving treatment should be addressed, including the creation of “a mechanism to enforce accountability for special warfare combat crewmen to complete required follow-up treatment and mitigate potential gaps in unit readiness.” These are expected to include reinforced mandatory follow-up appointments and an escalation protocol and be complete by March 2027.

Naval Special Warfare Command concurred with the watchdog’s recommendations and said it is revising its concussion management approach accordingly, including developing a standardized screening tool for wave-impact and other non-blast concussive events.

• The US added just 29,000 jobs in September, fewer roles than economists expected.
• In that dreary report, healthcare and data centers emerged as bright spots for job seekers.
• Right now, both fields seem solid, but it’s to be seen how long the data center boom lasts.

In a dreary labor market, there are a couple of bright spots: Medical jobs and specialty roles at data centers.

Over the past year, the healthcare sector has been one consistent stalwart. The latest jobs release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that healthcare was still chugging along in September, albeit at a slower pace. Construction also put up a respectable showing of 11,000 roles on net, even after losing roles in residential specialty trade contractors.

Instead, gains were heavily concentrated in nonresidential specialty trade contractors — the electricians and other construction employees who work on data center builds, among other projects.

The healthcare sector added about 17,000 roles — a sizable chunk of the total 29,000 payrolls added in the country, but about half of the industry’s average gain of 33,000 jobs over the past year.

Despite healthcare’s slower job growth, Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said the sector offers opportunities in the long run, given the demand to care for the aging population. ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud said cooler healthcare hiring could be due to funding challenges that could be making it harder to pay for more workers.

“So the demand is there, but the execution on that demand is limited by the federal funding environment right now,” she said.

While the healthcare sector grew by 16,700 jobs over the month, the government sector fell by 17,000. White-collar sectors were also among those that lost jobs. The information sector has plummeted from its 2022 peak of 3.1 million total employed to 2.7 million last month.

Construction’s growth of 11,000 jobs was partly driven by nonresidential specialty trade contractors, in which employment rose by 12,300.

It’s a testament to how the data center boom — which is shaping up to be the largest capital expenditure project in US history — is propping up construction employment and spending. Indeed’s data showed that data center-related postings have surged by almost 130% since June 2024, while overall US postings have dropped.

“With the amount of money that’s being put into these data centers and into that employment, I imagine that also in the short term is going to be an area where we’ll see some continued growth,” Stahle said.

But just how viable data centers are as a long-term employment driver remains uncertain. Guy Berger, a senior fellow at the research organization Burning Glass Institute and chief economist at Homebase, said if the data center boom is shorter than expected, “all of a sudden, we trained a lot of electricians, people like that, to do stuff that is no longer needed.”

• AI investor and developer Shivon Zilis is a longtime executive at Elon Musk’s companies.
• She said on X that her relationship with Musk went “from in love to let go.”
• A director at Neuralink, Zilis is a plaintiff in the trial and has four children with Musk.

Shivon Zilis — a longtime executive at Elon Musk’s companies and the mother of four of his children — said her relationship with the billionaire ended “in a week with no warning.”

In a post on X, Zilis shared a rare glimpse into Musk’s romantic life.

“I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness,” she wrote on Friday. “My heart is full knowing I got to do that, and I hope it leaves a lasting good effect.”

Zilis and her employer, the Musk-owned Neuralink, didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Musk also didn’t respond.

She joined Musk at OpenAI in 2016, a year after its founding, and helped helm the company during Musk’s investment and his rancorous 2018 split with CEO Sam Altman.

From there, Zilis followed Musk to Tesla and his rival project, xAI.

She’s now the director of operations and special projects at another of the billionaire’s companies — Neuralink, a startup that makes computer chips designed to be implanted in the brain.

Zilis is also the mother to four of Musk’s children.

Elon Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, shared a glimpse into Musk’s relationship with Zilis in September 2023.

In an excerpt from Isaacson’s biography of the Tesla CEO and in a post on social media, he shared a photo of Musk and Zilis with their twins — who were 16 months old at the time — sitting on each of their laps.

The biographer said the photo was taken when Musk ushered him to Zilis’ house in Austin to talk about the threat AI posed to civilization.

“We were sitting on a suburban patio by a tranquil backyard swimming pool on a sunny spring day, with two bright-eyed twins learning to toddle, as Musk somberly speculated about the window of opportunity for building a sustainable human colony on Mars before an AI apocalypse destroyed earthly civilization,” Isaacson said of the scene.

Here is more you need to know about Zilis:

Zilis grew up in Ontario, Canada, and is a lifelong athlete

Zilis was born in Markham, Ontario, and grew up playing ice hockey. She attended Yale University, where she played goalie on the women’s ice hockey team. She graduated in 2008 with a degree in economics and philosophy.

Photos from Zilis’ social media accounts, which were taken down in 2022, show Zilis surfing, zip-lining, and ice climbing. 

She started her career in finance and venture capital

After graduating from Yale, Zilis got a job at IBM, where she spent three years focused on financial technologies.

She later joined early-stage venture capital fund Bloomberg Beta, where she led investment efforts in data and machine learning. Her work at Bloomberg Beta earned her a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the venture-capital category in 2015.

Zilis worked as a project director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019, contributing her AI expertise to the Autopilot and chip design teams. 

She’s passionate about artificial intelligence

Zilis developed an interest in artificial intelligence around the age of 12 or 13, when she learned about the concept from the Our Lady Peace album “Spiritual Machines.” It led her to read a Ray Kurzweil book by a similar name and sparked her passion for AI, she said during a 2021 address at the Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI. 

“I’ve basically spent pretty much all of the last decade focused in and around AI unfolding in the world in the best way possible,” she said.

It was AI that led her to Musk: In 2016, Zilis joined OpenAI, a nonprofit co-founded by a group that included Musk and former Y Combinator president Sam Altman. OpenAI’s stated mission is to find ways for AI to benefit humanity as a whole. The company made headlines when it released a new version of its AI chatbot, ChatGPT in 2023.

Zilis and Musk share a love for fantasy and gaming

Like Musk, Zilis appears to have a passion for fantasy and games in the genre.

The Neuralink executive posted on X in May that “the fact that a visually rich and dynamic world can live and come alive on a laptop is insane.”

“We’re so normalized to the magic of gaming,” Zilis said in the post. “But, when you step back and think about it, it’s absolutely wild.”

She also posted a photo on X in July of talismans from Elden Ring, a fantasy video game set in a world of dungeons and warriors, known for its challenging gameplay. The game is written by “A Song of Fire and Ice” author George RR Martin and produced by FromSoftware, the creators of Dark Souls. The talismans in the game have various powers, such as increasing bow range or stamina recovery. 

Zilis followed up with a response to the post and said the items were “not religious or witchcraft items.” She also added that they have “resonance” for her in the game, “but also to keep in mind as priorities for real life (whether literally or through analogy).”

Musk also enjoys playing Elden Ring — to the point where he’s reportedly stayed up till 5:30 a.m. playing it. 

She has a high-level role at Neuralink

In 2017, Zilis joined Neuralink, the futuristic brain microchip company also cofounded by Musk. Neuralink has a short-term goal of using implantable devices to solve brain and spine problems, and a long-term mission of achieving “symbiosis” between artificial intelligence and the human brain, according to Musk.  

In her presentation at the Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI in 2021, Zilis called Neuralink the most “complicated but also fascinating thing I’ve ever encountered in my life.” 

“AI’s going to be one of the fundamentally transformative technologies humanity creates, if not the most,” she said. “And so we just need to make sure, from a humanity perspective, this goes well.” 

In January, Noland Arbaugh became the first human patient to receive a Neuralink brain implant.

Zilis has defended Musk from critics

In 2020, Musk publicly sparred with the state of California over its COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, calling them “fascist” and “forcible imprisoning.” He pledged that Tesla’s headquarters would relocate to Texas as a result, prompting California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher to tweet, “F*ck Elon Musk.”

Zilis responded on Twitter, writing that Gonzalez Fletcher’s tweet made her sad.

“No one’s perfect but I’ve never met anyone who goes through more personal pain to fight for an inspiring future for humanity – and has done so tirelessly for decades,” Zilis wrote. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but mine is that there’s no one I respect and admire more.”

This year, she testified at Musk’s civil trial against OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

The trial centered on Musk’s claims that Altman took his $38 million early investment in the company behind ChatGPT, then reneged on his promise that it would remain solely nonprofit.

Zillis, who joined Musk as a plaintiff in the $134 billion lawsuit that led to the trial, was a key witness, having had a front-row seat to many of the events before the six-member jury.

Zilis had twins with Musk in 2021 and bought a house in Austin

Business Insider was the first to report that Zilis had twins with the Tesla CEO, who were born in 2021. In 2022, Zilis and Musk filed a petition to change the twins’ names in order to “have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name,” according to court documents obtained by Business Insider.

Zilis purchased a home in a gated community in Austin in August 2021.

Tesla’s Gigafactory is located near Austin, and court documents obtained by Business Insider list Musk and Zilis as residents of that address. Musk, however, has said that his primary residence is a $50,000 Tesla tiny house in Boca Chica, near the SpaceX launch facility in South Texas. 

She is one of several women who have children with Musk

There are eight other known living children of Musk aside from those fathered with Zilis: Five are with Musk’s first wife, Justine Wilson, and three are with Musk’s former girlfriend, the musician Grimes. The billionaire has said in the past that he’s doing his best to help the “underpopulation crisis.”

Zilis and Musk’s twins were born a few weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate. Musk and Grimes later had a third child in June 2022, according to a 2023 biography of Musk.

• We knew from the start that we’d need to keep our wedding costs low.
• Our friends offered to officiate, DJ, photograph, and help coordinate the day.
• Their generosity is letting us create a meaningful celebration we can actually afford.

At the age of 39, I already had two failed marriages under my belt and could never have expected to enter another engagement. Life held its own plan for me, bringing the man I was searching for all along when I least expected it.

Roger had never married and never expected to be. We began our relationship straight out of my failing second marriage, and we were both at a loss about what our end goal would be — until we fell in love hard and never looked back.

My family had helped financially with the previous weddings

Preparing for my previous weddings was much simpler. Both families chipped in financially, which seems to be customary. Roger’s and my wedding would be much more difficult to afford. Roger’s father died 13 years ago, and his mother has Alzheimer’s disease. We knew that we would need to find our own way to make our wedding dreams come true.

The most reasonable solution was to opt for a lengthy engagement, giving us over two years’ time to plan and budget for our big day. Roger is a respiratory care specialist and is currently in massage therapy school. I am a freelance writer and a pet caretaker. We are raising Roger’s daughter and caring for our dog and two cats. In today’s economy, we are living paycheck to paycheck.

We had to get creative

Instead of an engagement party, we opted for a Stock the Bar Party. In lieu of gifts, attendees will bring bottles of spirits to be served at our wedding reception. Each bottle will earn them a raffle ticket toward a chance to win a free massage. This option will allow us some relief on alcohol costs and will also give Roger more practice with his massage skills.

The first item that we secured was the venue. We were able to find a marina that was cost-effective, flexible, and offered both ceremony and reception space. The tables and chairs are included in the cost, as well as a kitchen area for the reception. The venue provides security to assist with parking, so there will be no need for parking attendants. When we called to put down our deposit, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a 10% discount for booking so early.

We created a free wedding website to help us stay organized. Here are the details of our events, guest list, and registry. We opted out of sending Save-the-Dates and are only sending invitations. I use social media to find ideas for everything from décor to planning, and I have joined wedding budget groups online for cost-effective advice.

Roger and I have a large group of friends, and we are enlisting them to help however they can. We knew a local bar owner who headed “adult bingo” on Thursday nights, and we knew he would be the perfect mix of crude humor and soft heart to officiate our wedding. He said it was on his bucket list to marry a couple and that he was honored to do us the favor.

We have a friend who is glad to DJ for us for a low cost, and a friend-of-a-friend who offered his photography in exchange for a wedding invite. One of Roger’s classmates will be our MC, ensuring the day runs smoothly and directing guests as needed. We have had plenty of offers from others to help with planning, decorating, and catering.

Ideally, Roger and I would have had a lighter financial burden as we plan for our coming wedding. In a perfect world, we would have the help of each of our families. Instead, we find ourselves navigating the process alone. At our age, we understand the value of what truly matters.

Life may not have dealt me the hand that I expected, but Roger was always in my cards.