Elon Musk was ‘single and furious’ after his father had a child with his own stepdaughter who was 40 years his junior, the Tesla founder’s biography has revealed.
Any chance that Musk would repair his relationship with Errol disappeared when he learned that Jana Bezuidenhout had given birth to son Elliot Rush in 2016, claims Walter Isaacson in his book ‘Elon Musk’.
Jana was 30 at the time, but by the time she was 15, Musk was already concerned that his father was becoming “uncomfortably attentive” to her.
The book portrays Errol as a manipulative and abusive husband and father who once “lashed out” at Musk’s mother Maye – because another man was lashing out at her.
On the night of their honeymoon in the south of France, Errol infuriated Maye by buying copies of Playboy magazine and reading them in bed, Isaacson claims.
The tech billionaire’s estranged father had a child with – and then married – his former stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout (pictured here with their son, Elliot Rush)
Errol Musk defended his son’s decision to wake up to weed on the Joe Rogan podcast earlier this year
A biography of Musk, written by Walter Issacson, was published on Tuesday
Musk’s upbringing by his father (he moved in with him for seven years when he was ten, a decision he later regretted) had a major influence on his life.
Musk grew up in South Africa and claims that his father’s guilt led him to leave his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca behind to keep him company.
Musk calls his father a “volatile fabulist” with a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
As Musk puts it, “It was mental torture. He sure knew how to make something terrible.”
After Musk was left in the hospital following a beating by some kids at his school, Errol sided with the child who punched Musk in the face.
Errol is reported to have said, “That boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon called him stupid. How could I ever blame that child?’
After coming home from the hospital, Musk had to stand for an hour while his father yelled at him for being an “idiot” and “worthless.”
Errol, a colorful engineer who claimed to have had an interest in an emerald mine, had a relationship with Musk’s mother that was “full of drama.”
He proposed repeatedly, but she “didn’t trust him” and then discovered he was cheating on her. When she found out she cried and didn’t eat for a week, which caused her to lose 10 pounds, Isaacson claims.
Errol ‘promised to change his behaviour’ and she agreed to get married, but on the night of their wedding Maye, a model, suffered a shock.
They had flown to the south of France for their honeymoon, where Errol “bought copies of Playboy, which was banned in South Africa, and lay on the small hotel bed watching it, much to Maye’s chagrin.”
Back in Pretoria, their fights became “bitter” and she thought about leaving, but she was already pregnant.
Maye says, “It was clear that marrying him was a mistake, but now it was impossible to undo it.”
Musk was born on June 28, 1971, and his parents considered naming him “Nice” after the French city where he was conceived, meaning his name would have been “Nice Musk.”
Errol and Maye broke up after an ugly incident at an Oktoberfest party, when another man whistled at Maye and called her sexy.
Jana was 15 years old when Musk noticed his father paying her attention
Kimbal Musk (right) cut off all contact with his father after finding out he had impregnated Jana. Also pictured Maye Musk, left, with Elon
After Elon Musk and first wife Justine (pictured right) lost their son Nevada Alexander in 2002, he tried to repair their relationship with his father
Errol was “enraged” but instead of attacking the man, he “lashed out” at Maye and was “about to hit her” when a friend stopped him, Isaacson claims.
Maye later said ‘over time he had become crazier’ and that Errol ‘would hit me when the children were around’. Maye claims that five-year-old Musk would punch his father in the knees in an attempt to stop him.
In the book, Errol says this is “absolutely nonsense” and that he adored Maye and “never touched a woman in my life.”
However, he continued to verbally abuse Maye, calling her “boring, stupid and ugly.”
Errol later admitted that he had ruined his marriage, saying: ‘I had a very beautiful wife, but there were always prettier, younger girls.’
Musk left South Africa in 1989 at the age of 17, after which his father became “possessed by fantasies and conspiracies,” the book claims.
Kimbal, who also lived with Errol, discovered he had a “split personality” and could go from charming to shouting “malicious comments” for hours.
While Musk moved to Canada and then to the US, Errol met and married Heidi Bezuidenhout, later having two children.
In 2002, after the death of Musk’s newborn baby Nevada, his firstborn son, there was an opportunity for him to heal his rift with Errol.
Musk bought a house in Malibu for Errol and his new family to live in, but the arrangement quickly turned sour.
Isaacson writes, “Elon began to worry that Errol, who was 56, was becoming uncomfortably attentive to one of his stepdaughters, Jana, who was 15 at the time.”
“Elon became furious with his father for what he perceived as inappropriate behavior, and he developed a deep sympathy for Errol’s stepchildren.”
Musk bought a yacht for Errol and docked it 45 minutes away. He said Errol could live there and see his family only on weekends.
But Errol turned it down and eventually returned to South Africa, followed shortly after by his wife and stepchildren.
Maye Musk at The Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards on September 8
Elon Musk and his mother Maye attended Heidi Klum’s Halloween party last year
Musk did not see his father in person from 2002 to 2016, but then planned a trip to South Africa. By then he was divorced and had heart problems.
After dinner with his father, Musk cut short the trip and decided to return home.
Relations between Errol, Musk and Kimbal slowly thawed until they heard about the child with Jana.
Kimbal says in the book, “I actually made up with my dad slowly, but then he had a kid with Jana and I said, ‘You’re done, you’re gone.’ I never want to speak to you again.’ And I haven’t spoken to him since.”
Errol claimed at the time that they were “lonely, lost people” and that “one thing led to another – you can call it God’s plan or nature’s plan.”
Shortly afterwards, Musk told Rolling Stone that his father was “evil,” adding, “Almost every evil thing you can think of, he did.”
On Father’s Day in 2022, Errol Musk announced via email that he had had a second child with Jana.
Errol, who had seven children at the time, wrote: ‘The only thing we are on earth for is to reproduce. If I could have another child, I would. I don’t see any reason not to do that.’
In the email, Errol went on a rant, calling Joe Biden a “freak, criminal and pedophile president,” and in South Africa, without whites around, “the blacks will go back to the trees.”
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the “only world leader who spoke” and included an image of a stadium scoreboard that read: “TRUMP WON – F*** Joe Biden.”
The parallels between Musk and his father were not hard to miss, not least when it comes to reproduction.
Musk now has ten children by three different women and, according to his first wife Justine, shares some of the moods his father is prone to.
Justine, mother of five of Musk’s children, says in the book: “If your father always calls you an idiot and an idiot, perhaps the only response is to turn off everything inside that would have opened an emotional dimension that he had also opened.” I don’t have the tools to deal with it.’
Elon Musk held his son X earlier this year
‘He learned to suppress fear. If you turn off fear, you may also need to turn off other things, like joy or empathy.”
According to Isaacson, Justine sometimes warned Musk that he was “turning into your father.”
She says, “It was our code phrase to warn him that he was entering the realm of darkness.”