Errol Musk, the father of Elon Musk, told British tabloid The Sun Wednesday that he had a second and previously-unknown child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, in 2019—leaving many wondering more about the father of the world's richest man.
Errol, who was born in 1946, also did not rule out having more kids in the interview. "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce," he told The Sun, echoing his (estranged) son's position on having many children.
Errol Musk is 76 years old. He was an engineer and provided a comfortable lifestyle in the capital of South Africa, Pretoria in the early days of the Musk family, according to Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, a 2017 biography of Elon Musk by Bloomberg writer Ashlee Vance.
Maye Musk, his first wife, a supermodel and dietitian, said in the book that Errol aggressively pursued her, and she eventually married him in 1970.
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, and he has a brother, Kimbal, and a sister, Tosca. In the book, his family members recall Errol's love for traveling with them, his keen mind, and his penchant for practical lessons, such as taking them to build sites related to his job.
However, it is clear there was a dark side. In a 2019 interview for Harper's Bazaar, Maye said Errol emotionally and physically abused her. "He's good at making life miserable–that's for sure.
He can take any situation no matter how good it is and make it bad," Elon said in Vance's book. Elon said similar things in a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, calling him a "terrible human being."
Errol told Rolling Stone via email that he has been "accused of being a Gay, a Misogynist, a Paedophile, a Traitor, a Rat, a S–t" but that he loves his "children and would readily do whatever for them."
He told Business Insider South Africa in 2018 that he was "really terrible," during his marriage with Maye.
Errol did not immediately respond to a request for comment through what appears to be his LinkedIn profile.
Other than being a very "talented engineer," as Elon put it in Vance's book, who was able to provide books, travel, and novelties like computers for his kids, the author noted, there has been some debate about Errol's financial status.