His net worth is. Inside the fabulous Dior couture world of 'Mrs. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . 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. 2023 The Moguldom Nation. 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. Musk's father said that Tiffanys set the $800 emerald in a ring and offered it for $24,000, which he said was an object lesson in retail markup for the family. The Associated Press, 20 July 2021, https://apnews.com/article/business-science-3546262d41f4c84763aa15339f642a5a. Errol and Heide had two children together, Alexandra and Asha Rose. "We were very wealthy. He was bullied at school. Unlike his son, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Errol has mostly flown under the radar, though the father of seven has had an increasingly public profile over the last few years, largely due to his complicated family relationships. Business Insider South Africa, 23 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-dad-tells-bi-about-the-familys-casual-attitude-to-wealth-2018-2. 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. Facebook, 27 July 2020, https://www.facebook.com/errol.musk/posts/10218340000911015. His parents divorced. "What's very difficult for others is easy for me. Friend, Tad. Elon Musk isn't innovative. Since at least 2018, a rumor has been shared online about Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk in regard to his father's purported past ownership of an "apartheid emerald mine" or "slave emerald mine." That conversation is more valuable but less newsworthy than just resurfacing the same lazy claims every few months, which are guaranteed to get clicks. Forbes, 28 July 2014, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2014/07/28/elon-musk-tells-me-his-secret-of-success-hint-it-aint-about-the-money/. The Daily Mail has reported that Errol was a multimillionaire before the age of 30. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Where is this bs coming from? by Marilynn Manuel 13-02-2023 13:43 Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. By some accounts, Elon is reported to have witnessed the attack, with Errol later telling Rolling Stone that he acted in self-defense; he was never convicted of any crime. Are you prioritizing your cable entertainment bill over protecting and investing in your family? "Elon Musk's Vision of an Electric-Car Future." Then he'd sue me and say that I was unfit to parent.". I was 15 and really wanted to go with him but didn't realize how dangerous it was. "I Talked to Elon Musk about Journalism and the Blood Emeralds Story." Note: Less than two weeks after Arnold's piece was published in 2021, the satirical website The Onion printed a story with the headline, "The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money." We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. 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. In a rare interview with Forbes, Errol revealed that his parents were the first to ever fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane. Hes the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. We were going to fly into Jeddah and there was a religious holiday and they said if we come in now we have to pay $2,000 but if we wait 10 days we can come in at no charge. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane. The Buffalo News via San Jose Mercury News via Newspapers.com, 20 Apr. We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe," Errol said, explaining that one person would hold the money down while a second would slam the safe door shut. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Errol himself has an adventurous streak and is an avid sailor and pilot. "[4][8], In 1972, he was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. The patriarch confirmed the shootings to the publication in 2017, saying manslaughter charges were later dropped because he acted in self-defense. What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. Here's a summary of our findings: We located reporting from as far back as 2009 and 2014 that said when Elon Musk ("Elon" hereafter) was a child in South Africa in the 1980s, his father ("Errol" hereafter) at some point owned "a stake in an emerald mine" near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, not South Africa. The 76-year-old hasnt ruled out having more children, saying: The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.. My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would've happened anyway.". So I became a half owner of the mine," he told the outlet. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Instead, Musk has sought to dispel the general belief that he comes from wealth. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. [4], Musk met Maye Haldeman when he was 11 years old and they were childhood friends before marrying in 1970. For a while, I thought things were so obvious that everyone must know this., However, Elon has disputed claims that he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. All Rights Reserved. But I didnt really understand at the time what kind of person he was. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years., When the Tesla CEO was around 16 years old, he and his brother Kimbal sold two emeralds to Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York City while Errol snoozed, according to what Musk's father told Business Insider South Africa. " he told the outlet. In April 2014, Dana Hull and Patrick May penned an article for San Jose's The Mercury News with the headline, "The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk." Fortier, Alexander. Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. Jump to Main content Search Account Menu icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. 1/2This article is false. He once tweeted he arrived in 1989, not 1988, however. Photo: Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post/Getty Images; Anthony Harvey/Getty Images, Elon Musk and Amber Heard's Relationship Timeline, Elon Musk Claims He Had 'No Choice' But to Make Mass Layoffs at Twitter, Elon Musk Buys Twitter for $44B Following Legal Battle with Company, Fires Top Execs: Reports, Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Apologizes Following Layoffs at the Company After Elon Musk's Takeover, Twitter to Lay Off Several Employees Over Email amid Elon Musk Takeover: Reports, Employees Suing Twitter In Response to Elon Musk's Plans for Mass Layoffs, Elon Musk Goes to Heidi Klum's Halloween Party as Stars Vow to Leave Twitter Over Controversy, When Will Donald Trump Return to Twitter? He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.". Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. In my experience, there is nothing you can do, Elon said of Errol. My own (wonderful) mother told me I am ruthless and should learn to be more humane. But I love my children and would readily do whatever for them.. 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. In an interview with Business Insider South Africa, Musk's father Errol Musk said he negotiated his way into having partial ownership of an Emerald mine in Zambia along with other assets. How much of a Momentum Proteas Womens cricket fan are you? The Save Journalism Committee, 9 Mar. [13] After engaging in extra-marital affairs,[4] Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, and both sons moved in with their father. In the mid 1980s, Elon Musks father Errol and a copilot were on their way to England aboard a plane they hoped to sell when they landed there. On July 3, 2020, Elon tweeted about the subject again, responding to a since-deleted tweet with, "I don't have an 'emerald mine,' nor was I given free money from anyone, inheritance or otherwise. According to reporting we reviewed, the stake his father had in the emerald mine appeared to have both started and ended in the 1980s. FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ERROL MUSK 1. Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from. However, in the recent Channel 4 documentary Elon Musk: Superhero or Supervillain, co-founder of SpaceX, Jim Cattrell, claimed Elon was home at the time. He has also dismissed rumors that his father co-owned a Zambian emerald mine, writing on Twitter in 2019: He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. 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. "I'm naturally good at engineering that's because I inherited it from my father," he told Rolling Stone. However, that as well as Errol's claim of owning half of an emerald mine is in stark contrast to what Elon has said about his father's wealth. (We'll have more on Vance's Bloomberg.com interview later in this story.). Errol met Maye Haldeman the lady who would become his wife at Clapham High School. He also added, "'Self-made billionaires' are a myth." He also co-founded PayPal, which means a Twitter user said The WHOLE bank on the internet was started by him (yes, your credit card as well). They still dont like it. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in South Africa. "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." ", Elon has said one of the reasons he is so skilled at engineering is because of his father. Instead, we will concentrate on the two Business Insider South Africa articles mentioned by Arnold that appeared to provide the roots of the "apartheid emerald mine" rumor. This is not true," Elon told Rolling Stone in 2017. I said, Oh, all right. He also called the whole rumor "BS.". So I thought, I can be company. Yeah, I was sad for my father. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to. 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. While the story did mention the family once lived in a popular suburb, the article said nothing of the emerald mine providing wealth to the son when he moved to Canada in 1988, or to the U.S. in 1992. All rights reserved. Born in 1971, Musk grew up in Pretoria, South Africa. Get down!'. de Wet, Phillip. There was a shooting in the living room, and I guess his father shot them dead. [21] As of 2022, Musk and Jana Bezuidenhout were no longer living together. 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. They also emphasize anecdotes from Elon and his mother about the hard work and squalor they endured in Canada in those years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. In an email to Rolling Stone, Musk's father said he smacked the Tesla CEO only once and on the bottom. He also said that the only criminal charges that had been filed against him from when he killed three home invaders in self-defense had been cleared. With his new riches, Errol also bought half of an emerald mine. A post on Reddit mentioned a theory that said Elon "convinced these publications to remove the articles," but there's no evidence to support that. The funding we raised for our first company came from a small group of random angel investors in Silicon Valley. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done., He was such a terrible human being. * The headline of this article was updated toreflect that the Musk family once owned the mine in question, and no longer do. We've received your submission. "He also claims he was getting emeralds from other sources, with only 60-70% coming from this venture." Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire." For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. To me, he sure is trying to make the world better right now, and that's the best thing he could do with his father's money. Ask him." The story included reporting of Elon's denials that the emerald mine had provided any seed money for the wealth he would later accumulate. His grandmother broke barriers of her own, becoming the first-ever chiropractor in Canada. Chromatica Warrior @DebbieTweeted Can he be held responsible for his dads ethics tho? Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. We reached out to Clash and Forbes PR to ask why the interview was no longer available. The share in the mine wasnt acquired until the 1980s. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. Meet. 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.