He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. He did the investment after selling a plane for about 80 000. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. 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., Errol subsequently told the publication in an email: Ive been accused of being a Gay, a Misogynist, a Paedophile, a Traitor, a Rat, a St (quite often), a Bastard (by many women whose attentions I did not return) and much more. On their way to England, Errol and his copilot got word that their original flight plan was going to cost a lot of money. The child, a boy named Elliot Rush, is now 5 years old. At the conference, Elon talked to some professors who told Errol, This boy needs to get his hands on one of these computers. I wish. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. Jeff Bezos' garage-based start was funded by a quarter . "Zip2." He attended Queens University in Canada. ". Where is this bs coming from? "And we got emeralds for the next six years.". "I screwed up the marriage, I was totally responsible. . By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. [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]. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his mother, Maye Musk. They also emphasize anecdotes from Elon and his mother about the hard work and squalor they endured in Canada in those years. The share in the mine wasnt acquired until the 1980s. 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.". 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. All Rights Reserved. On May 22, 2020, Bloomberg.com published an interview with Elon, which was penned by Ashlee Vance. ", 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. All Rights Reserved. I couldn't find my passport so I ended up grabbing my brother's which turned out to be six months overdue! Musk, who is never shy of saying his say online, took to Twitter to show his disappointment with The Onion and took the opportunity to shout-out the publications competition, The Babylon Bee. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. "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.". Theyre the same, except for the fact that he is a billionaire, started multiple successful companies and doesnt live in his mothers basement. Born in 1971, Musk grew up in Pretoria, South Africa. 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. We reached out to Clash and Forbes PR to ask why the interview was no longer available. He will plan evil, Elon tearfully told Rolling Stone in 2017. [11][5] Maye has stated that Errol beat her. Errol was a successful consulting engineer, and also owned an emerald mine in Zambia. For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. "Elon Musk Hits out at US Professor over Emerald Mine Claims: 'Idiot and Liar.'" Its unclear how old Elon was at the time and whether he was even present is in dispute. mark_able_jones_. The New York Times, 5 May 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/world/africa/elon-musk-south-africa.html. "Is It True That Elon Musk's Family Got Their Wealth from Apartheid Emerald Mining?" The same story appeared to have also been published the day before with the headline, "A teenage Elon Musk once casually sold his father's emeralds to Tiffany & Co. while his dad was sleeping. We reached out to AskMen.com to ask if the fact that some of the pages were gone was a glitch, or if it was a purposeful partial removal. "My brother and I paid for college through scholarships, loans and working two jobs simultaneously. Errol was born in South Africa to a British mother and a South African father. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. 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. Get down!'. 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." For the state of Texas, The Onion printed, "Elon Musk: Apartheid.". "Everybody I knew called him 'the Pig' because he treated me so badly in public. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. 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.. ---. "There was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money." Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. The Save Journalism Committee, 9 Mar. A Twitter user claimed in December 2019 that Elon Musk's privileged upbringing included his father, Errol Musk, who owned an emerald mine [and] who could bankroll his education. However, the Tesla CEO begged to differ. While His Dad Was Sleeping." Kaizer Chiefs to sign more Swallows players. There were AK-47s all over the place and I'm thinking, "Man, this could really go bad.". Instead, Musk has sought to dispel the general belief that he comes from wealth. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. "A Teenage Elon Musk Once Casually Sold His Father's Emeralds to Tiffany & Co. Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020. www.bloomberg.com, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt," Elon tweeted in December 2019. Clash's same 2014 interview was also republished by AskMen.com on Jan. 2, 2015. Where is this bs coming from? 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. With a net worth of $37 billion, Musk hopes to revolutionize transportation on Earth and in space, bringing fully-electric vehicles to the mass market through his auto manufacturing company, Tesla. 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. 2021, https://www.theonion.com/the-richest-person-in-every-state-and-how-they-made-the-1846312073. Once the Musk emerald story started circulating, and information about Musk's father Errol's past business dealings got out, a cavalcade of internet poo-pooers flocked to Twitter to lambast Musk . 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. EM: Company death not succeeding with the company causes me a lot more stress than physical danger. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. 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. To summarize Arnold's story would be difficult, as it contained a considerable amount of data and analysis. 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). 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. I wish. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. And he had a disastrous relationship with his father. Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. ", For his part, Errol told the Daily Mail that Elon "needs to grow up" and "get over himself," adding, "I'm not going to hit back. Errol himself has an adventurous streak and is an avid sailor and pilot. 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/. Below we have provided a small sampling of the many different ways the rumor has been framed in past years. Sager, Jessica. The emerald mine was not mentioned in that interview. Jain, Sanya. Former Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, who worked in the Fremont, California, factory in 2017, alleged that the companys production floor was a hotbed for racist behavior. Supervisors regularly used the N word around Black workers and he said he was fired after complaining to human resources about workplace harassment. This article is actually accurate: https://t.co/eVpCX9V1NB. 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. So I thought, I can be company. Yeah, I was sad for my father. ---. AskMen, 2 Jan. 2015, https://www.askmen.com/entertainment/right-stuff/elon-musk-interview.html. In the past, the Tesla CEO hasrespondedseveral times on Twitter about the emerald mine rumors. Elon Musks family wealth has once again resurfaced as a talking point. Musk replied, linking to Jeremy Arnolds article, which gave Musks side of the story. Hes the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. It is still hard to discern whether this story is true and what conclusions can be drawn. Errol has long since retired from the engineering business and now lives a quiet life in the Western Cape in South Africa. ", He grew up in South Africa and had the good fortune of doing so in an upper-middle-class home. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. "Who Is Elon Musk's Estranged Father? My dad was not physically violent with me. 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. "We were very wealthy. "One thing led to another you can call it God's plan or nature's plan. Errol and Heide had two children of their own, but he also helped raise Jana. Ask him." 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. 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. Where is this bs coming from?" He also added, "'Self-made billionaires' are a myth." [6][7] In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk boasted that as a result of the emerald mine "we had so much money we couldn't even close our safe. South Africa Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican Number: 2005/028472/07. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done. The Twitter account no longer exists. On holidays, Errol and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. ", In 2018, he explained that he was helping Jana get over a breakup at the time of Rushi's conception, but he initially assumed the baby's father was Jana's ex. 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. Musk readily jumps onto Twitter to refute the charges that his empire was forged with the aid of family wealth, and part of the reason he wanted to talk to merather comically given the rocket launch and, well, trollswas because the jabs bug him, and he hopes to set the record straight. How much of a Momentum Proteas Womens cricket fan are you? Aside from that hes just dumb. Are you prioritizing your cable entertainment bill over protecting and investing in your family? If I could have another child I would. 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.. In 2017, family members were left stunned when Jana became pregnant with Errols baby. Jump to Main content Search Account Menu icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal. "Can Elon Musk Really Get Us To Mars Within 10 Years?" We did not receive a response from Forbes PR. As Arnold noted, the headline for this story was later corrected more than two years after it was published, sometime around late July or early August 2020,according to page captures from the Internet Archive. Errols grandmother was Canadas first chiropractor, while Errols own mom and dad were the first two people to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane, according to Forbes magazine. Move over, Elon theres another Musk hitting the headlines. Like his son, the wealthy business owner who was once rumored to be the co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine has also been mired in controversy. "Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done It's so terrible, you can't believe it. "He also claims he was getting emeralds from other sources, with only 60-70% coming from this venture." 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.. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. 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. "We went to . But the emerald mine story keeps coming back. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . Elon may have been 6 or 7 years old at the time and begged his dad to get him a ticket to a very early computer conference in South Africa. Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. After his divorce from Elons mother, Errol went on to wed HeideBezuidenhout, a young widow who already had two children, including 4-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout. 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. "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money)." Errol and his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, share two children. On an undisclosed date, Errol reportedly shot and killed three of up to a half-dozen armed intruders who broke into his Johannesburg home, according to Rolling Stone. 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." Elon also denied that Errol invested in the company. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford., In a follow-up tweet, Elon said his father didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt.. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably. Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. He is the father of Elon Musk, the CEO of 'SpaceX,' 'Tesla, Inc.,' and 'Neuralink' and one of the co-founders of 'PayPal.' Errol is mostly known for his scandalous life and his estranged relationship with his children. "Bezos' Comments on Workers after Spaceflight Draws Rebuke." Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment. 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. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. "'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." The way Errol tells it, that all started with an inconvenient religious holiday. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. 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." Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. The article's headline was changed in late July or early August 2020, which appeared to be after Errol made his Facebook poston July 27, which called the dated article's claims into question. In South Africa, my father had a private plane we'd fly in incredibly dangerous weather and barely make it back. Clash, Jim. @spylinen tweeted, The mine was in Zambia, which became independent of the UK in 1964. Then he'd sue me and say that I was unfit to parent.". So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.". While he has given a few rare interviews, much of the publicly known information about him has come from his estranged son Elon or his ex-wife Maye Musk, neither of whom have had complimentary things to say about the engineer and onetime emerald mine owner. He once tweeted he arrived in 1989, not 1988, however. Errol Musk was born in Pretoria South Africa to Walter Henry James and Cora Amelia Robinson. That conversation is more valuable but less newsworthy than just resurfacing the same lazy claims every few months, which are guaranteed to get clicks. [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born. Smart Policies are as low as $30 a month, No Medical Exam Required He also claimed, "My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years.". SpaceX, his rocket company, is valued at $20 billion-plus. This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia. 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. ", The Tesla founder also said there was no way to repair his relationship with his father. 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. We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. Copyright Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. CEO Elon Musk said his father Errol ran out of money in the '90s and was provided financial support by the entrepreneur and his brother.
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