Getty Elon Musk's mother, Maye Musk walks the runway for the Concept Korea show during New York Fashion Week on September 8, 2017 in New York./Talulah Riley and Elon Musk arrive at the 22nd Annual Environmental Media Awards on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif./ Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.
Elon Musk has fathered eight children, married two women and has a “fluid” relationship with Canadian songwriter Grimes, the mother of his two youngest children.
He was raised in a wealthy family in South Africa, and has two lesser known millionaire siblings. But his wealth has not saved him from hardship in his family. His first son, Nevada, died when he was eight weeks old, and Elon Musk described his father, Errol Musk, as “evil” in a Rolling Stone interview.
Errol Musk told Business Insider they were so wealthy, it took a strategic team effort to close their safe.
“We were very wealthy. We had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe,” Errol Musk told the outlet.
He said one person would hold the money in place while the other would slam the door.
“And then there’d still be all these notes sticking out and we’d sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets,” he continued.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Musk & Grimes Recently Welcomed a New Baby Into Their Family Via a Surrogate
Musk’s youngest child, Exa Dark Sideræl, was born through a surrogate in December 2021 to Elon Musk and Claire Boucher, better known by her stage name Grimes. Boucher is also the mother of their son X AE A-XII, who was born May 4, 2020.
Musk’s first child, Nevada Alexander, died when he was 10 weeks old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Justine Wilson, Musk’s first wife, was Nevada’s mother.
“Elon made it clear that he did not want to talk about Nevada’s death,” Wilson wrote in a 2010 article for Marie Claire. “I didn’t understand this, just as he didn’t understand why I grieved openly, which he regarded as ’emotionally manipulative.’ I buried my feelings instead, coping with Nevada’s death by making my first visit to an IVF clinic less than two months later.”
They went on to have five more children together. Wilson gave birth to twins Xavier and Griffin in 2004, then triplets Kai, Saxon, And Damian in 2006.
2. Grimes, AKA Claire Boucher, Described Her Relationship to Musk as ‘Fluid’
Canadian musician Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, is the mother of Musk’s two youngest children, X and Y. Musk told Page Six in September 2021 that they were “semi-separated,” mainly due to his frequent travel.
A few months later in early 2022, Vanity Fair reporter Devin Gordon was interviewing Boucher at her home when an infant started crying upstairs. Thus, the newest addition to Musk’s family was revealed, along with the complexity of their relationship.
“There’s no real word for it,” Grimes told Vanity Fair of their relationship status. “I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we’re very fluid. We live in separate houses. We’re best friends. We see each other all the time…. We just have our own thing going on, and I don’t expect other people to understand it.”
Grimes told Gordon they were happy, and that they plan to have more children together.
“This is the best it’s ever been…. We just need to be free,” she said.
Around the same time in March 2022, Page Six reported Grimes was “getting serious” with infamous leaker Chelsea Manning, and that the two were living together.
3. Elon Musk’s Mom, Maye Musk, Is a Model & Nutritionist
Maye Musk is a 74-year-old model who told the Daily Mail in 2016 that embracing her age helped her to continue landing jobs. She told the outlet that when she started letting her hair go gray, she thought it would be the end to her career. Instead, it had the opposite effect.
“I’ll continue working as long as people want to hire me,” she told the outlet. “I have no plans to retire. When I go to shoots, the young models are excited to see me. It proves they can have long and successful careers, too.”
Musk is a registered dietician-nutritionist and the author of a memoir, “A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success.” She told CBS This Morning in 2020 that men in their 50s become CEOs and presidents, while women fear they will lose their jobs.
“We need to change that around. And if somebody’s making you feel bad about your age, just say goodbye,” she said on the show. “You don’t need that person in your life.
4. Musk’s Dad, Errol Musk, Was an Engineer, Property Developer & Emerald Mine Owner & Musk Said He Was ‘Raised By Books’
In 2018 Errol Musk, 72, announced he has a baby boy with Jana Bezuidenhout (30) who was 4 when her mother Heidi married him.
They were married for 18 years before divorcing
Errol did not consider Bezuidenhout to be his stepdaughter, saying she grew up away from the family.
Elon Musk was raised in Pretoria, South Africa by his parents, Errol and Maye Musk, until he was 8 years old. But he told Rolling Stone he rarely saw either of his parents.
“I didn’t really have a primary nanny or anything,” he told Rolling Stone. “I just had a housekeeper who was there to make sure I didn’t break anything. She wasn’t, like, watching me. I was off making explosives and reading books and building rockets and doing things that could have gotten me killed. I’m shocked that I have all my fingers. I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents.”
Musk described his dad as “a terrible human being” in the interview with Rolling Stone. Errol Musk denied abusing his son in an email to the magazine, saying that he once “smacked” Elon Musk “on the bottom.”
The family was extremely wealthy, Musk told Business Insider.
“We had so much money, at times we couldn’t even close our safe,” Errol Musk told the outlet.
He was an electromechanical engineer, a property developer and was once a half owner of a Zambian emerald mine, according to Yahoo News. Musk has two millionaire siblings. Kimbal Musk is a restaurateur and Elon Musk’s younger brother, and Tosca Musk is a producer and director who is Elon Musk’s younger sister.
5. Elon Musk Has Two Ex-Wives, Justine Wilson & Talulah Riley
Justine Wilson was Musk’s first wife and the mother of his six of his children, including his first son who died in infancy. Wilson wrote in a 2010 article for Marie Claire that she was surprised to become friends with Musk’s new love, Talulah Riley, who would become his second wife. Wilson’s friend said the scenario seemed like the plot of a French movie, she wrote in the article, and she sent Riley an email.
“I would rather live out the French-movie version of things, in which the two women become friends and various philosophies are pondered, than the American version, in which one is ‘good’ and one is ‘bad’ and there’s a huge catfight sequence and someone gets thrown off a balcony,” the email said.
“Let’s do as the French do,” Riley responded.
Wilson and Musk were married for eight years, from 2000 to 2008. Musk married Riley twice, from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2013 to 2016.
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