Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com / YouTube
The father and son don't exactly get along.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Aug 01, 2022
Tesla CEO, founder of SpaceX and richest man alive, Elon Musk, has never had the best relationship with his father, 79-year-old Errol Musk.
Although the 51-year-old father of ten is arguably the most successful man on the planet, his relationship with his father seems to be the area where he struggles the most.
Both father and son have had choice words to say about each other in the past, so here are some of the comments Elon and Errol have publicly made about each other.
Here are 7 things Elon Musk and Errol Musk have said about each other.
1. Errol Musk isn’t proud of Elon.
During a phone interview with Kyle and Jackie O, Errol revealed that although his son is so successful and was described as a “genius” by Jackie herself, he isn’t actually proud of him.
“No. You know, we are a family that have been doing a lot of things for a long time, it’s not as if we suddenly started doing something,” he said.
He expresses that although his son has achieved a lot, Elon feels like “where he is now, he would’ve liked to be here five years ago.”
“He is frustrated with progress and it’s understandable,” the father said. “I know it sounds crazy, but we tend to think like that as a family. He’s 50 now and I still think of him as a little boy. But he’s 50, I mean that’s an old man.”
Errol admitted later in the interview that his favorite son who he’s most proud of is actually Kimbal — who is also a billionaire, but not as rich as Elon.
2. Errol Musk thinks that Elon is getting fat.
After the none-too-flattering photos of Elon in Greece were released, memes spread like wildfire on social media and it seems like everyone had something to say about the richest man alive.
Errol was one of those people, and when he spoke to Kyle and Jackie O, he said although “Elon is very strongly built,” he thinks that his son has “been eating badly.”
After revealing his thoughts on his son’s body, he adds that he’s been trying to get Elon on a weight loss supplement called “garcinia cambogia.”
3. Elon Musk claims that his father didn’t own an emerald mine and didn’t help him.
The long-standing myth that Errol Musk owned an emerald mine in South Africa which allowed for Elon’s privileged upbringing was denied by Elon himself.
In response to a deleted tweet, Elon cleared up the rumors that his father loaned him any money or even own the emerald mine in the first place.
“He didn’t own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt,” he said. “I couldn’t even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. Where is this bs coming from?”
Elon is claiming that his success is all his responsibility and that his father had no part in it.
4. Elon Musk thinks that his father is “evil” and a “terrible human being.”
When Errol and Maye Musk, Elon’s mother, separated, his brother and sister went to live with their mother while he stayed with his father — telling Rolling Stone in 2017 that it was “not a good idea.”
"He was such a terrible human being,” he said. "My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil."
Elon continued and talked about the various things he witnessed his father do while living with him in South Africa.
"You have no idea about how bad. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done,” he said. “Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done."
5. Errol defended himself and called Elon an “idiot.”
After the disparaging remarks from Elon were publicized, Errol had things to say himself and elaborated on his side of the story between the father and son.
“I drove them to school in a convertible Rolls-Royce Corniche, they had thoroughbred horses to ride and motorbikes at the age of 14,” he told The Daily Mail. “They were spoilt, I suppose. Maybe that’s why Elon is acting like a spoilt child now,” he says.
After Elon left his father’s home to make something for himself and separate himself from him, Errol called him an “idiot,” and said that he would never amount to anything, according to Elon with Rolling Stone.
“I think Elon was emotionally fragile when he attacked me,” Errol said, citing his son’s then-recent split with Amber Heard as the reason for his “tantrums,” as Errol described them.
6. Elon does not approve of Errol’s relationship with his stepdaughter.
Errol has recently been in the news for the resurfacing of his relationship with his stepdaughter who is 30 years old and 40 years younger than him, Jana Bezuidenhout.
"We were lonely, lost people," Errol told The Times of his relationship with his stepdaughter. "One thing led to another — you can call it God's plan or nature's plan."
Although Errol claims to be very much in love with her, his children are very much not in love with the idea and expressed their distaste for it.
"I told my daughter Ali about him because I thought she would be supportive and understanding. She said I was insane, mentally ill,” he told the DailyMail. “She told [Errol's other kids, including Elon] and they went berserk. They think I'm getting senile and should go into an old age home, not have a life full of fun and a tiny baby."
The news of their relationship put an even larger strain between him and his son.
7. Errol thinks that Elon will eventually get bored of his current pursuits.
Being his father, Errol knows how Elon grew up — how he viewed the world, what he looked for in life, and maybe even specific habits that he was prone to.
One of these things was that Elon would get bored of a project and drop it for something new.
“As far as Elon is concerned, I worry, what now? What is there? I start to worry of boredom,” Errol told Forbes. “I get worried that he is getting bored of sending stuff to NASA every week or two weeks.”
He explains that this isn’t just something he randomly conjured up in his head, but is something that Elon had formed a habit of doing when he was younger — his mind always wandered for more.
“I mean this is becoming passé… He is one of those people, and certainly was as a boy, if he suddenly decides it’s not interesting anymore he just kind of drops it. I doubt he will though,” Errol said.
We asked a life coach about how Errol's comments might impact his son.
YourTango Expert and Spiritual Life Coach, Keya Murthy, believes that Errol and Elon's dysfunctional relationship may actually explain why the younger Musk is the man he is today.
“Elon’s need to always aim for more and have more comes from wanting his daddy to accept him and be proud of him,” she says.
“Any father who fat-shames his son publicly and openly favors one son over another says a lot about the father-son dynamics,” Murthy adds.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.