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re: Elon Musk to File Thermonuclear Lawsuit as Advertisers QUIT X
Errol Musk, 'I Took My Son Elon Musk to a Sex Party When He Was NINE'.. ..
Errol Musk 77, Gives an Exclusive Interview About His Eldest Son Elon
BBC 30 SEP 2023
Error Musk, 77, has eight children, the eldest of whom, Elon, is the richest man on the planet
Tesla CEO's father says his son was in love with Amber Heard and Depp blames him for breakdown of marriage, Grimes is a 'bit of a nutcase' and X Æ A-12 is a weird name in exclusive interview
Errol Musk isn't too sure how many grandchildren he has. 'Sixteen? Seventeen? It's hard to keep count,' he says. I'm sure.
At the age of 77, he has eight children, the eldest of whom, Elon, is not only the richest man on the planet but, well, let's just say he's a huge chip off the old go-forth-and-multiply block.
Indeed, earlier this month it was revealed in a sensational new biography that Elon had a secret eleventh child. It's the latest addition to the billionaire's sprawling family tree, which is singular in its complexity thanks to his many relationships with women, some of which appear to have been conducted simultaneously.
Tellingly, as I discover in this exclusive interview, Errol's take on his son's progeny is spectacularly relaxed.
'Men trying to spread their seed is natural. I've got about five people who claim they've got my child. Who knows? When Elon was living with me as a boy and I was mixing with the horsey set [Errol owned a stables for thoroughbred showjumpers] you stopped counting the number of women you'd been with after 200. Having 11 children is great. Why not, if you can afford it?'
Clearly, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.
I meet Errol at his rather fabulous open-plan house on the coast of the Western Cape, South Africa, shortly after the publication of that new explosive biography of the Tesla magnate, Twitter/X owner and space buccaneer.
It's a moment when Errol is very much in the limelight, thanks to author Walter Isaacson's damning portrayal of him as a manipulative, abusive husband and father. So much so that in the book Elon describes his childhood with his dad as one of 'mental torture'.
Here, for the first time since the book's accusations made global headlines, Errol reveals his side of the story. And there is much to reveal — not least his response to accusations that, as one of Elon's partners once put it, the entrepreneur was 'conditioned in his childhood to see life as pain'.
Not forgetting, too, Errol's take on the much-vaunted thesis that Elon's chaotic, almost masochistic, love life is a direct consequence of his tortured relationship with his father. Errol and his wife, Maye, divorced in 1979 and Elon and his two siblings stayed with their mother. A year later, when Elon was nine, he went to live with his father.
In the new book, however, Elon describes his father as 'pure evil'.....
So was Elon's childhood really one of utter agony?
'Unbridled rubbish,' says Errol. He raises his hands in the air as if to say 'what the hell...'
On the kitchen island are some birthday cards. One is from Errol's daughter Rose, Elon's half-sister and the youngest of two children from Errol's third marriage to Heide Bezuidenhout.
Rose has written: 'Thanks for being such an amazing dad. I love you.'
'Every time she sends the same message,' says Errol. 'Everything I am, I owe to you.' '
He adds: 'It's true of Elon too. Everything he is, he owes to me. I say that with humility. I did my best. That book is not the truth. It's fodder for a play. I emailed the author and told him that.'
Elon aged two wearing an American football outfit and helmet
As well as thoroughly defending himself, Errol paints a startling portrait of his son's personal life and discusses in rather bald terms what Elon is like as a husband and father.
Perhaps most fascinating of all, he offers an insight into Elon's relationship with Hollywood actress Amber Heard, whom he dated for several months in 2017.
'I thought Amber Heard was perfect for him,' says Errol. As you may remember, Depp notoriously accused Elon of having an affair with Heard while they were still married; the couple later endured several court proceedings after Heard accused Depp of beating her. Depp was eventually awarded damages by a jury.
Errol continues: '[Depp] blames Elon for the breakdown of his marriage and is on the cusp of suing him for that still.
'Elon was in love with Amber for a long while before she got divorced from Johnny Depp. It's natural to want to be the dominant seed. But if you have children in vitro . . . ' Errol frowns and shakes his head.
It becomes apparent when Errol discusses his son's chequered love-life that he's not what you might call progressive.
The facts, though, are these. Following the desperately sad death of Elon's firstborn child with his first wife Justine in 2002 from sudden infant death syndrome, the couple turned to IVF to father their twins and then, again, for their triplets. They divorced in 2008, but shared custody.
The same year, Elon married British actress Talulah Riley — they went on to marry and divorce twice, finally ending their pairing in 2016.
It becomes apparent when Errol discusses his son's chequered love-life that he's not what you might call progressive.
The facts, though, are these. Following the desperately sad death of Elon's firstborn child with his first wife Justine in 2002 from sudden infant death syndrome, the couple turned to IVF to father their twins and then, again, for their triplets. They divorced in 2008, but shared custody.
The same year, Elon married British actress Talulah Riley — they went on to marry and divorce twice, finally ending their pairing in 2016.
Elon (left) is pictured with Kimbal with their father's Rolls Royce
In 2018, Elon and the Canadian singer Grimes used IVF to help conceive their son.Bizarrely, they called him X.
Later, they welcomed their first daughter Exa Dark Siderael, whom they call Y, via a surrogate in 2021. The birth of their third child — a son named Techno Mechanicus — was revealed in Isaacson's book this month.
As if all that wasn't enough, Elon is also father to 22-month-old twins, apparently again conceived via IVF with his employee Shivon Zilis, who were born in 2021, just weeks before the birth of his daughter Exa.
'He had some children with one woman in vitro while he was living with another woman,' says Errol bluntly.
'That's a tricky thing because children ask questions later on. 'Why did you do this or that?' 'Did you love my mother?' Children are very critical. They don't forgive their parents for things they think their parents could have done differently. I've experienced that with Elon.
'X is a weird name for a child, completely weird. I think that Grimes girl is weird, too. The last I heard she was living with a woman, then she's back with him, then she's gone again. She's a bit of a nutcase. Now Elon's on his own. He wants a woman who's got brains and beauty.'
When discussing his son's approach to fatherhood, it becomes clear that Errol thinks Elon's offspring are worryingly cosseted in comparison to how he raised his children, who were brought up in South Africa.
'I bought Elon his first motorbike when he was eight and his brother, Kimbal, was seven. They rode them mostly on the farm but later took to the public roads wearing helmets.
'They never had any accidents. Kimbal said to me recently, in reference to the mighty mollycoddling of children these days, that buying them motorbikes at that age was insane but my kids had a real upbringing.
'We went down the Amazon, went to Tanzania and northern Zambia where everyone you met had an AK47. At the age of 12 or 13 they could take a Learjet around Heathrow.
'Their kids, on the other hand, all have nannies and have had since they were born. Because they're so wealthy each one has their own European nanny so at the age of 14 or 15 they can't cross the street unless the nanny takes them.'
Elon Musk is the CEO of Space X, Twitter and Tesla
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