Maye – billionaire Elon Musk’s mother – overcame 15 years of hardship, raised her children alone, and became a supermodel at the age of over 70.
Maye Musk was chosen as the cover girl for Taler China’s January issue. On January 23, she shared her fashion look with the magazine, in which Maye wore a red silk cape dress and a matching feathered hat.
At the age of 76, Maye Musk was recognized as a supermodel even though she had been a model since she was 15. Throughout her career, she has posed for Vogue and Time , starred in Beyonce’s music videos, and is the face of Revlon makeup. She is also a nutritionist, having published her first lifestyle guide – Feel Fantastic: Maye Musk’s Good Health Clinic in 1996. On her personal page, billionaire Elon Musk’s mother often gives advice and problem-solving instructions to her fans.
When releasing her memoir about 70 years of life in 2019, she said: “I used to accept misfortune, but luckily I defeated fate in time and found joy in life again. Therefore, I want to share my own experience, inspiring those who are lost.”
Maye Musk had many years of unhappiness and hardship. She married Erroll Musk in 1970 and had three children: Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk, and Tosca Musk. In a 2019 interview with Harper’s Bazaar , both she and Elon accused Erroll of emotional abuse. “People who knew me called him a ‘pig’ because he treated me so badly in public. I was too scared to tell anyone I had made a mistake. He called me stupid, ugly, boring,” she said.
According to Maye and Elon, Elon’s father was very rich but stingy, often not buying clothes for his children. The couple divorced after nine years of marriage, when Elon Musk was eight years old, forcing the three of them into a life of poverty and hardship. Maye and her children moved from South Africa to Toronto, Canada. In later interviews, Maye often used the phrase “survival” when recalling the most difficult 15 years. She told Vogue : “For a long time after the divorce, I was heartbroken. I was extremely afraid that I could not raise my children. Those were difficult years. Alone with three small children and no income. I cried when they spilled milk because I had no more money to buy it.”
At the time, Maye was working five jobs to make ends meet. So her children could take free classes at the University of Toronto, she took a job as a lab assistant at the school. The first thing she bought when she got her first paycheck was a rug, since their apartment was bare and bare. “The next thing I bought was a computer for Elon, so he could sit on the rug and use it,” she told Vogue in 2015.
With no men in the house, Maye repaired everything herself. “My youngest daughter, Tosca, still remembers the day I injured my hand from hammering nails. She said, “Mommy, if your hand is damaged, you can’t be a model anymore.””
She also taught her children to be independent from an early age, applying for jobs for each of them, helping Elon Musk get a job at Microsoft early on, and helping her son Kimbal get a part-time job at a bank.
In a 2019 interview with CNBC , Maye Musk said she only tried to teach her children the basics of life: how to take care of themselves, be kind, compassionate, and polite. She didn’t treat them like children, didn’t scold them if they weren’t successful, never forced them to sit at a desk, and never checked their homework. According to her, Elon was a hard worker, but only studied subjects that interested him.
In addition to supporting her children in their work, in their eyes, she is also a thoughtful mother. During difficult times, Elon Musk and his brother once could not buy their mother a birthday present. They gave her a toy house, a small car model, and said they would buy her a real one later. “That toy house is really what means the most to me,” Maye told Tatler . Over the past few years, she has repeatedly argued with the Biden administration for ignoring Tesla’s role in leading the electric vehicle industry.
The supermodel credits hard work for getting her through it all. Tosca Musk is now a highly regarded television producer. Her second son, Kimbal Musk, is the founder of three rising food companies. Her eldest son, Elon Musk, is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and is among the top three richest billionaires in the world.
But Maye Musk doesn’t think her life is a fairy tale. The supermodel doesn’t allow herself to stop, always working, recharging her positive energy regularly. “My mother is an artist and an avid reader. At 94, she learned to use a Mac to create computer graphics. She sees no reason to stop doing what she loves. And neither do I. The word ‘retirement’ is not in my dictionary,” she told Vogue .
