Elon Musk is known the world over as the richest man alive and the brain behind several multi-billion-dollar businesses. However, the father of Elon, Errol Musk remains an enigma. Making the scarcity of information about the senior Musk worse, Elon has often spoken negatively of his father.
In this article, we attempt to unravel Errol Musk, the man who gave birth to one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.
Errol Musk was born in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, to a South African father and British mother. There is not much known about his life until he married Maye Haldeman, a Canadian model, with whom he had Elon as his first child. The pair would have another son, Kimbal, and a daughter, Tosca.
Working as an engineer (Musk agrees his father was brilliant), Errol had considerable wealth as he was successful. While the family was well enough for them to live in a large house, it appears his wealth has been exaggerated. For example, Errol has been said to own a part of an emerald mine, but there has been no source of confirmation apart from his own words. Elon has even denied the claim on Twitter, explaining how he worked his way through school and ended up with thousands of dollars in student debt.
Nevertheless, the British tabloid, Mail on Sunday, was convinced the senior Musk was a millionaire before the age of 30.
Regardless of Errol’s level of wealth, living with the engineer was not a pleasant experience. When the topic of Errol comes up, members of his family clam up but agree he was a terrible person.
Errol and Maye divorced after seven years of marriage after accusations of physical, financial, and emotional manipulation and abuse. The divorce has been referred to as Maye extricating herself.
The senior Musk is no stranger to scandal, as he described himself as a philanderer while talking about his relationship with his first wife and admitted he screwed up.
However, the biggest scandal of his existence would be fathering a child with his stepdaughter. He was 72, and the stepdaughter, Jana, was 30. Jana had been known to Errol since she was four years old. He called the pregnancy an accident and justified it by claiming he never saw Jana as his stepdaughter.
Running a close second is Errol’s involvement in the death of three men that invaded his house in Johannesburg. He was charged with manslaughter but got off on the claim of self-defense.
Even if you could sit with Errol to hear his side of the story and the story of his life, you would have to keep in mind Elon’s warning to a writer not to rely on his father’s take on past events.
