", Though he claimed Elon and Kimbal were upset with him for fathering a child with a woman they felt was "their sister," Errol told The Sun, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. There were AK-47s all over the place and I'm thinking, "Man, this could really go bad.". I tried threats, rewards, intellectual arguments, emotional arguments, everything to try to change my father for the better, and he no way, it just got worse. Vance, Ashlee. [23], In 1998, Musk shot and killed three out of six or seven burglars who forced their way into his Johannesburg home and who opened fire upon detection.[24]. SpaceX, his rocket company, is valued at $20 billion-plus. Copyright 2023 Market Realist. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to Twitter to answer claims made by The Onion about how his family made their money in apartheid South Africa. On March 25, 2021, Elon Musktweetedthat the emerald mine inheritance rumor was false, and that he had arrived by himself in Canada in 1989 "with ~CA$2,500." ERROL IS A RETIRED SOUTH AFRICAN ENGINEER. He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Musk, with whom he has two children, Alexandra and Rose. On Feb. 23, 2018, Business Insider SA published a story with the headline, "'We had so much money we couldn't even close our safe': Elon Musk's Dad tells BI about the family's insanely casual attitude to wealth." In the mid-1980s, the family profited handsomely from Errol Musk's purchasing of an emerald mine, after selling their airplane for 80,000 (the equivalent of 320,000 today). Where is this bs coming from? In a February 2018 interview with Business Insider South Africa, Musk's father said he did own half share in an emerald mine in Zambia. Kaizer Chiefs to sign more Swallows players. Still, Elon's tweets leave just enough room for Errol's story to be accurate, even if the inferences about his family's wealth are not. 2021, https://www.theonion.com/the-richest-person-in-every-state-and-how-they-made-the-1846312073. This is a pretty awful lie, Elon tweeted. "Exploring the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk", "How To Raise A Billionaire: An Interview With Elon Musk's Father, Errol Musk", "Who Is Elon Musk's Estranged Father? Musk had earlier slammed Reich for misrepresenting his background in the post, which argued that "self-made billionaires are a myth" and named the SpaceX founder and other prominent business. "Elon Musk: The College Years." We also reached out to both men for additional comment and to ask if they could potentially provide any evidence that would support their statements, even though they didn't start the rumor. All About Errol Musk", "50 years of Elon Musk's huge wealth, from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla", "How Elon Musk made his money - from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla", "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege", "At 68, Maye Musk, the Mother of Elon, Is Reclaiming the Spotlight", "El padre de Elon Musk dice que la ambicin de su hijo se debe a la educacin austera que recibi: "Fui un padre estricto", "BBC Two - The Elon Musk Show, Series 1, Episode 2", "Elon Musk's dad reveals he fathered an "unplanned" child with his stepdaughter", "Elon Musk's father has baby with step-daughter he has known since she was four", "Elon Musk's father confirms second child with his own stepdaughter - report", "Errol Musk explains why he got his stepdaughter pregnant", "Ayah Elon Musk Punya Bayi dari Hubungan dengan Putri Tirinya", "Meet Elon Musk's controversial father, Errol", "Errol Musk hat Kind mit Stieftochter: "Wir sind zum Fortpflanzen auf der Welt", "Elon Musk's Dad Says Company Wants His Sperm to Impregnate 'High-Class' Women", Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Errol_Musk&oldid=1142497006, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 18:50. ---. Elon Musk has a wild story!" he captioned it. ", In the post, he claimed that his family stood in opposition to apartheid, saying he went so far as to be elected as a Pretoria city councillor to aid that opposition. I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. Ashlee Vance interviewed hundreds of people. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he once owned half of an emerald mine in Zambia, which he claimed to have purchased on a whim. "'We Had so Much Money We Couldn't Even Close Our Safe': Elon Musk's Dad Tells BI about the Family's Insanely Casual Attitude to Wealth." While in Djibouti, he and his co-pilot sold their plane to some Italian nationals. It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would later break the rules of the motoring business with Tesla, then go on to change spaceflight with SpaceX. The Daily Mail has reported that Errol was a multimillionaire before the age of 30. Elon Musk's father planned to fly a plane from South Africa to England and sell it once they got there. We were very wealthy. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane to a group of Italians. The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it was seed money from his father's wealth from the mine that made it possible for him to become the American billionaire he is today. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. Recently, Elon Musk had to set the record straight on a narrative spun over three years ago about his family owning an emerald mine in South Africa. Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, remains a mysterious figure, and there is still no common consensus how his work or his wealth during Elon's childhood. Theyre the same, except for the fact that he is a billionaire, started multiple successful companies and doesnt live in his mothers basement. So it was very formative for him. . The Tesla CEO has fathered 10 children. mark_able_jones_. Im not sure if replying to a satire site and amplifying their articles reach is necessarily the best idea, but Musk felt that this was a hill worth dying on. They still feel a bit creepy about it., They still dont like it, Errol admitted in a new interview withthe Sun: They still feel a bit creepy about it because shes their sister. People.Com, 7 Nov. 2022, https://people.com/human-interest/who-is-errol-musk-elon-musk-father/. The way Errol tells it, that all started with an inconvenient religious holiday. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. ---. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done. [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. In 2019, Elon Musk confronted the Twitter talking point about his father's supposed emerald mine head-on, writing, "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. [17] Later in life, after splitting from Heide Bezuidenhout, he fathered two children with her daughter (his former step-daughter) Jana Bezuidenhout; a son born in 2017 and a daughter born in 2019. Errol owned one of the largest homes in Pretoria and took his children on many overseas trips, according to the book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, written by Ashlee Vance. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. He was bullied at school. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to. "Like every abused woman, I was embarrassed, and I knew I had made a mistake, you know? Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. After obtaining the mine, he tells that he had so much money, that 'he couldn't close his safe'. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. luis carruthers @orthereaboot tweeted, When the same pattern of racist behavior happens at all $tsla locations, its the company thats racist, and the fish rots from @elonmusks head.. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. The user tweeted: If this is half of an article is a small glimpse into the apartheid mines his [family-owned] haha even [T]he Onion tells more truthful stories than CNN and Fox. According to Ashlee Vances 2017 biography of the Tesla founder, The Musk family owned one of the biggest houses in Pretoria thanks to the success of Errols engineering business, which included large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base.. He said, They just walked into Tiffanys and said, Do you want to buy some emeralds? And they sold two emeralds: one was for $800, and I think the other one was for $1,200. In a 2017 Rolling Stone cover story, the Tesla CEO described his childhood and revealed that he moved in with his father at eight years old after his parents split. Several respondents on social media disputed the emerald mine and privileged-lifestyle story, defending Musks intelligence and questioning the intelligence of the person who started the thread. The entire episode started when the satirical publication The Onion published a piece on the wealthiest person in each American state. He said that he sold and traded these emeralds himself and that at one point, Elon himself even went out to sell some of the stones. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. They never made it to their destination. In an interview with The Sun, Errol recalled the attack, claiming that he was confronted by a group of seven men inside his home and shot back at the intruders after they opened fire. "Is It True That Elon Musk's Family Got Their Wealth from Apartheid Emerald Mining?" Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. [11] The family lived in Pretoria,[10][12] where Maye worked as a dietician and a model. In a 2017 email to employees which the company later released in response to one of the lawsuits, Elon warned against being a huge jerk to members of a historically less represented group. He also wrote, if someone is a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept that apology.. [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born. Note: Some of the tweets that promoted the rumor said that Elon did not found Tesla, which was true. Instead, they focus on describing how hard he worked in his teenage years and early adulthood, how much debt he accrued by attending college and his disdain for his father. It was revealed last weekthat he welcomed twochildren with an executiveat his artificial intelligence company, Neuralink, just weeks before hissecond child with his ex-girlfriend, Grimes,was born. In an interview with Rolling Stone, during which he reportedly cried, Elon called his father "a terrible human being" and "evil. On July 28, 2014, Forbes.com published an interview with Elon Musk, which was conducted by Jim Clash. According to the story, "When [Elon] was elevenabout the time that he sold his first piece of software, a video game called Blastar Musk told his mother that he was going to move back to Pretoria to live with his father, Errol, an electrical engineer who would later own an auto-parts store and a share in an emerald mine.". [14], Musk was married to Heide Bezuidenhout for eighteen years and helped her raise her young daughter Jana Bezuidenhout, a child from a previous relationship. I arrived by myself in Canada in 89 with ~CA$2500 Paid my own way through college, ending with ~$100k student debt Started 1st company with no funding & just one computer I built Theres no evidence whatsoever of an emerald mine, 2/2My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years. He added that Elon left the country as "a clear indication of his willingness to not support the political suppression in the country. Not all the tweets were supportive of Elon. [15][16] At the time of their marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout was only four years old and lived together with them. When Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, a then-8-year-old Elon chose to live with his dad. The narrative of Elon Musks wealth coming from his familys apartheid gains is one that started a few years ago when Business Insider wrote an article highlighting the Musk familys involvement in mining during SAs apartheid years. To add to the truth, we went to Boston Chicken in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving because we couldnt afford a turkey. Jack @lets_gobaby tweeted, Ok but how does inheriting money mean you arent smart?. Rolling Stone reported in 2017 that Errol was, by his own account, making money in the often dangerous worlds of construction and emerald mining at times so much that he claims he couldnt close his safe.. Answer these 2 simple questions & WIN R1000 in cash! I can't see any reason not to. 1/2This article is false. "My brother and I paid for college through scholarships, loans and working two jobs simultaneously. This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia. I wish. His brother Kimbal was with him when the two brothers sold two of the gems to Tiffany & Co. for $2,000, according to their father. We also reached out to media relations personnel at SpaceX, where he is the founder and CEO, as well as Tesla and Twitter. Fortier, Alexander. I felt sorry for my father, because my mother had all three kids. The eccentric billionaire once again attempted to set the record straight about his familys emerald mines to respond to Twitter user @howlpolitically. He began his career as an electromechanical engineer. We did not receive a response from Forbes PR. He also sent a link to another interview he did with Elon in 2016. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. ", The Tesla founder also said there was no way to repair his relationship with his father. Errol told BI that he was flying from his home in South Africa to the U.K. to sell the plane he was on, with a young Elon in tow. Here is the incredible true story of Errol Musk and the striking similarities he shares with his powerful son. Errol admitted to having affairs, but his ex-wife, now a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, said the problems in their marriage extended beyond infidelity, alleging that Errol was abusive. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.". Errol met Maye Haldeman the lady who would become his wife at Clapham High School. The article attributed the source of Elon Musks wealth to apartheid. Elon, 51, was brought to tears discussing his dad in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, describing him as evil and a terrible human being.. Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from South Africa to England to sell the aircraft but when they couldn't make a scheduled stop in Saudi Arabia, he pivoted his plan and changed his life. Related stories Making better AI is Elon Musk's new object of . In that context, its probably understandable that Musk decided enough was enough and felt he needed to answer the claims online. You could tell by the way that he told the story. "And we got emeralds for the next six years.". But little else is known about Errol outside of his native South Africa, where he has made a name for himself as a high-powered engineer, property developer and political advocate who vehemently opposed apartheid. I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books.