Who Is Elon Musk's Father?
Have you ever wondered about Elon Musk's parents? Same. Which is why we've done some investigating into Elon's father, from whom the billionaire inventor is now estranged.
Many years before creating the Tesla, the electric car favored by eccentric billionaires worldwide, Elon was born to Maye and Errol Musk in Pretoria, South Africa, on June 28, 1971. His parents split up when he was still young, and Elon later moved in with his dad because, as he told Rolling Stone, he felt sorry for him. "It was not a good idea," he told the outlet.
Though Elon said that his father had a very high I.Q. and says he inherited his own gift for engineering from Errol, he also said his father was "such a terrible human being." Elon has rarely gone into details about his father or his childhood, but here is what we were able to find out.
Elon Musk's relationship with his father is very poor
In a Rolling Stone profile, Elon Musk shared a bit about his estranged father Errol Musk, who he described as abusive. "My dad was not physically violent with me. He was only physically violent when I was very young," he claimed to the magazine (Errol countered in an email that he had only once smacked Elon on the bottom).
Elon also said, "My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil," continuing, "You have no idea about how bad. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done." (Errol said that he had never committed a crime.) For his part, Errol told The Daily Mail that Elon was a "spoilt child" and that "he can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster."
Errol made the news in 2018 when he confirmed that he was the father of his 30-year-old stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout's baby, calling it, "God's plan," per The Sunday Times of London. Though he married Bezuidenhout's mother when she was 4 years old, and the marriage lasted for 18 years, he told the outlet he does not consider her his stepdaughter as she was raised largely away from the family.
Per The Daily Mail, this relationship is a large reason for the schism in the family. Which is understandable.