Who is the Father of Elon Musk: Biography, Personal Life, Career, Net Worth

Laelia Yang March 18, 2022 | 11:00

Errol Musk is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, and property developer. Check out this biography to know about his biography: his childhood, family, personal life, scandal, etc.

Who is Errol Musk: Biography, Personal Life, Career, Net Worth and More

Errol Musk is best recognized as the father of great business tycoon, Elon Musk. He is an entrepreneur and business magnate. He is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; early-stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. A centibillionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world.

Errol Musk’s father name is Joshua Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian, and Musk has British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. Continue reading and find more about Errol Musk’s biography, personal life, family, net worth, and many more facts about him below:

Errol Musk's Family

He was born in 1946, with the given name of Errol Graham Musk in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, and grew up alongside a brother Michael James. The Musk family is full of adventurers. Errol’s grandmother was Canada’s first chiropractor. His father and mother were the first to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine plane. Errol, a pilot, sailor, and engineer, raised Elon and Kimbal in the quiet suburbs of Pretoria.

Elon’s siblings also share the limelight. Tosca is a producer and director. Kimbal owns a number of restaurant chains and spearheads a non-profit education-based program, The Kitchen Community, which grows vegetables in the United States.

Errol Musk's Early Life and Education

His earliest education was achieved at Waterkloof House Preparatory School after which he joined Bryanston High School before going on to graduate from Pretoria Boys High School. In 1989, against his father’s wish, the young Errol migrated to Canada at age 17 to attend Queen’s University and in so doing, he sidestepped the obligatory service in the South African military by all citizens. 1992 saw him at the University of Pennsylvania, studying business and physics and after he bagged an undergraduate degree in economics, he went ahead to acquire a second BSC in physics. When he left Pennsylvania, Errol Musk went in pursuit of a Ph.D. in energy physics at Stanford University in California. Coincidentally, it was that time of the internet boom that resulted in his dropping out of Stanford after a couple of days to join the moving train, and in no time at all, he launched his debut company known as Zip2 Corporation.

Errol Musk's Personal Life

Photo: boredpanda

By the time he was 30, Errol Musk was already a married man, in 1970, he exchanged marriage vows with his high school girlfriend – Maye Haldeman – a Canadian lady who earned a living as a model and dietitian. The next year, precisely on the 28th of June 1971, the duo welcomed their first child, a son named Elon Musk, after one year, Elon became a brother to Kimbal and they were both joined by Tosca – their sister in 1974. While Tosca went into movie directing and producing, Kimbal has made a name as an entrepreneur, a restaurateur, and a philanthropist.

Errol Musk and his first wife Maye officially divorced in 1979 following which he embarked on a second marriage with Heide-Mari a widow with three children. Errol went on to have two more daughters with her namely Asha “Rose” Musk and Alexandra “Ali” Musk.

While the wealth was pumping in, Errol Musk made some really huge acquisitions which include the likes of a private jet, yachts, and luxurious homes. He became the owner of many mines as well as several other natural resources and infrastructure. The famed engineer spent most of his leisure hours at some of the posh homes he acquired, especially the one in Waterkloof – a classy neighborhood of Pretoria, He retired at an early age and currently spends his time on travels.

Errol Musk's Net Worth

He was a great businessman as well in his era. He has worked with many big companies. With his hard work and talent, he has self-earned a net worth of around $200 billion US dollars.

Moreover his son, Musk co-founded online bank X.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal. The company was bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. As of 2021, his son is known as one of the richest personalities in the whole world.

Errol Musk's profile summary

Full name: Errol Graham Musk

Year of birth: 1946

Place of birth: Pretoria, South Africa

Age: 75 years

Famous as: Tech Guru Elon Musk's dad

Education: Clapham High School, University of Pretoria

Major: Electromechanical engineering

Profession: Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Investor

Father: Walter Henry James

Mother: Cora Amelia Robinson

Ex-wives: Maye Haldeman and Heidi-Mari

Children: Elon, Kimbal, Tosca, Asha, Alexandra, and Elliot

Stepdaughter/ baby mama: Jana Bezuidenhout

Nationality: South African

Ethnicity: White

Residence: Langebaan, Western Cape, South Africa.

How many kids does Errol Musk have?

Photo: cnbc

Errol has six children; Elon, Kimbal, Tosca, Asha, Alexandra, and Elliot.

Elon

Elon was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971. As a 12-year-old child, he taught himself computer programming and sold the code of a video game to a PC magazine for $500 (£300). As a 12-year-old child he taught himself computer programming and sold the code of a video game to a PC magazine for $500 (£300). The gifted child was severely bullied, and at 17 moved to Canada to study.

Now 49, he is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Motors, co-founder and chairman of SolarCity, co-chairman of Open AI, co-founder of Zip2, and founder of X.com, which merged with PayPal. His stated aim is to reduce global warming and save humans from extinction by setting up a colony on Mars.

Kimbal

Elon's brother Kimbal was born in Pretoria in 1972. Taking after his father, Kimbal is a successful entrepreneur. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group which has restaurants located in Colorado, Memphis, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Chicago. He has three children.

Elliot Rush

Errol fathered Elliot Rush with his own step-daughter but revealed it was a "one-off". Jana was Heide's daughter from her first marriage. In 2018, he was accused of bringing "shame on the family" by his ex-wife Maye. Jana was just four-years-old when Errol married her mother.

Errol Musk's Career

Errol Musk has been the subject of criticism due to unorthodox or unscientific stances and highly publicized controversies. Other than this, he has a very successful career and enjoying his career thoroughly.

Errol earned massive wealth as an engineering consultant and as a real-estate developer. He owned several mines and other natural-resources infrastructure. Errol had a share in an emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika, Zambia. He also owned thoroughbred horses. He also had a private yacht and a 'Cessna' aircraft, as he enjoyed sailing and piloting back then. Errol would spend most of his holidays at the several posh homes he owned. One of them was in Waterkloof, a classy suburb of Pretoria, where Elon had spent most of his childhood after Errol and Maye got divorced. However, Errol retired quite early. By 1980, Errol was half-retired and eventually began to spend most of his time and money on travel.

Did Errol Musk own an emerald mine?

Over the years there have been whispers that Elon grew up privileged because of his father’s big emerald mine. The Space X billionaire squashed those rumors in a 2019 tweet where he clarified that he worked his own way through college. He also said that the rumors were “BS”.

“He didn’t own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. I couldn’t even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so I programmed at night & the website only worked during the day. Where is this bs coming from?”

They were not completely unfounded though because according to TheFamousPeople.com, Errol did own a few shares in an emerald mine in Zambia. Most of his money came from being an engineering consultant and a real-estate developer.

Errol Musk's The Scandals

Photo: dailymail

Elon’s relationship with Errol became even more strained after Errol fathered a child with his stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout.

Errol initially denied fathering the child but paternity tests forced him to admit that he had started a relationship with Jana after she broke up with her boyfriend.

Errol was 72 and Jana was 30 when their son Elliot Rush was born. Errol and Jana’s mother got divorced shortly after the scandal-hit.

Where is Errol Musk Now?

Errol has long since retired from the engineering business and now lives a quiet life in the Western Cape in South Africa. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably.

Why Did Elon Musk Call Him a Terrible Human Being?

Errol Musk has always had a strained relationship with his family, especially his first son Elon who has referred to his dad as a terrible human being in several interviews. The bad blood between father and son took off after the end of Errol’s first marriage, however, the situation worsened with his approach to life and scandals but the stroke that broke the camel’s back was his unpalatable revelation about fathering the child of his stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout.

One would be right to think that the fact that Errol became Jana’s stepfather when she was four would deter the famed engineer from seeing her as anything more than his child who should be entitled to his protection. Errol initially kept their affair a dirty secret but later decided to go public with the information and the revelation that Jana’s child Elliot Rush who was formally believed to be fathered by her ex-boyfriend was actually Errol Musk’s son. He later tried to justify his dastardly act by claiming that he never saw Jana as a stepdaughter as she grew outside the family. The scandalous revelation brought an end to Errol’s 18-year-old marriage with Jana’s mum.

Errol Musk’s sins don’t just end with his stepdaughter, he is a diehard philanderer, keeping a string of mistresses, he was even slammed with a criminal charge once and allegedly fired back at some robbers who tried to rob his house, killing three in the process – he latter got a clean chit. Even with all his bad feelings towards his father, Elon still feels pity for his dad; he believes that the old man is just lonely and sad.

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