Elon also denied that Errol invested in the company. 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. Instead, Musk has sought to dispel the general belief that he comes from wealth. We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. 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. Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from. Answer these 2 simple questions & WIN R1000 in cash! Given Elon Musks interest in exploration and adventure, its no surprise he descends from intrepid stock, and its Errols side of the family that is seemingly responsible for his innovative, envelope-pushing genes. They also emphasize anecdotes from Elon and his mother about the hard work and squalor they endured in Canada in those years. 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. The constant resurfacing of the story is probably what spurred Musk into replying on Twitter. All the Musk siblings did well, Forbes reported. This article is actually accurate: https://t.co/eVpCX9V1NB. The claim attracted a response from the billionaire, who said that the claim isn't true. So I became a half owner of the mine," he told the outlet. Their plane got diverted, which led to a chance meeting with Italians who wanted to buy the plane in cash. "Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine." Note: The reference to Zip2 concerned Elon's "first enterprise" in 1995. 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). Note: Reporting from Esquire.com said that Elon moved from South Africa to Canada in 1988. People.Com, 7 Nov. 2022, https://people.com/human-interest/who-is-errol-musk-elon-musk-father/. Musk's revelation about his father's financial situation in the '90s comes after a Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, claimed on Twitter that 'self-made billionaires' are a myth and Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. We did not receive a response before this story was published. "We went to . Whats very difficult for others is easy for me. The Save Journalism Committee, 9 Mar. He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Musk, with whom he has two children, Alexandra and Rose. Errol was a successful consulting engineer, and also owned an emerald mine in Zambia. 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. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. Its obvious why Musk would want to distance himself from apartheid in every possible way. To me, he sure is trying to make the world better right now, and thats the best thing he could do with his fathers money. He also sent a link to another interview he did with Elon in 2016. Jack @lets_gobaby tweeted, Ok but how does inheriting money mean you arent smart?. And we spent three weeks making our rent-controlled apartment livable in Toronto, Maye tweeted. Clash's same 2014 interview was also republished by AskMen.com on Jan. 2, 2015. r/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 18 Dec. 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/rj689s/elon_musk_and_the_emerald_mine/. [1] His father was a South African veteran of World War II and his mother was British. The article was titled, "I Talked to Elon Musk about Journalism and the Blood Emeralds Story.". The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it. 1/2This article is false. "We went to this guy's prefab [home] and he opened his safe," Errol said. In 2017, Errol told Rolling Stone that while he has never intentionally hurt or threatened anyone, he once shot and killed a group of burglars at his home in Johannesburg, though he says he was cleared of all charges because he acted in self-defense. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. In a rare interview with Forbes, Errol revealed that his parents were the first to ever fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane. . Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done., He was such a terrible human being. https://web.archive.org/. Musk's father, Errol, an engineer, married Maye when she was 22, and Musk was born shortly . 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." Twitter, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/. 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. "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money)." Elon tweeted that he had $100,000 debt after college. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . 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. Several decades ago, Errol allegedly shot and killed three armed intruders who broke into his Johannesburg home. An avid pilot and sailor, as well as an electrical and mechanical engineer, he made his money consulting and developing properties and retired early. 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. 2021, https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Elon-Musks-family-got-their-wealth-from-apartheid-emerald-mining. Other companies started by Musk include Neuralink, which is working on developing implantable brainmachine interfaces. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. [10] She gave birth to three children; Elon Reeve Musk born on 28 June 1971, Kimbal Reeve Musk born on 20 September 1972, and Tosca Musk born on 20 July 1974. 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. By email, Clash told us he had no idea why it was no longer hosted by Forbes. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zip2. They still dont like it. "They just walked into Tiffany's and said, 'Do you want to buy some emeralds?' "Like every abused woman, I was embarrassed, and I knew I had made a mistake, you know? Has even greenlit racism by saying those on receiving end need thick skin.https://t.co/DhpANcrqNp https://t.co/OESO1BJTtE, Can he be held responsible for his dad's ethics tho? The patriarch confirmed the shootings to the publication in 2017, saying manslaughter charges were later dropped because he acted in self-defense. 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. "Can Elon Musk Really Get Us To Mars Within 10 Years?" After the end of the article, a note was added that read, "BI SA reached out to Elon for confirmation of the tale, but he did not respond. The Associated Press, 20 July 2021, https://apnews.com/article/business-science-3546262d41f4c84763aa15339f642a5a. ", Errol and Elon have an acrimonious relationship. There was a shooting in the living room, and I guess his father shot them dead. Kimbal is a millionaire who owns restaurant chains and spearheads a nonprofit education program, The Kitchen Community, which grows vegetables in the U.S. Tosca is a film producer and director. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. "My [former] wife doesn't speak to me, even when we're together, she won't speak to me, so we haven't spoken to one other for 37 years. His grandmother broke barriers of her own, becoming the first-ever chiropractor in Canada. It is still hard to discern whether this story is true and what conclusions can be drawn. He has also fathered two children, a son and a daughter, with his stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout. He continued: He grabbed some weapons, as you could see on the cameras there were some intruders that were coming over the walls, and they were also armed. He seemed very sad and lonely by himself. At the conference, Elon talked to some professors who told Errol, This boy needs to get his hands on one of these computers. He was only physically violent when I was very young., He also said, You have no idea about how bad. On Wednesday, Errol confirmed that he and Jana had welcomed a second child, a daughter who is now 3. Errol Musk bought 50% of the emerald mine in 1969 for about 40,000, which is equal to about 160 000 today. Errol talked about Elons fascination with computers when they first came out in the mid-80s, during an interview on radio station 702 in Johannesburg, as reported by Forbes. This is not true," Elon told Rolling Stone in 2017. 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. "What's very difficult for others is easy for me. "They didn't like it.". ", Inoneof the tweets from Elon in which he refuted the emerald mine rumor, he linked to an article that had been published on March 9, 2021. ", He grew up in South Africa and had the good fortune of doing so in an upper-middle-class home. To summarize Arnold's story would be difficult, as it contained a considerable amount of data and analysis. Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. "The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money." Friend, Tad. 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. de Wet, Phillip. Elon and Kimbal allegedly sold 2 emeralds: one worth $800 and another worth $1200. I've tried everything. ", 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. And I was too scared to tell anyone [about his violence]," Maye told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. While His Dad Was Sleeping." There, the two South Africans ran into a group of Italians who, as it happened, were in the market for an airplane. Headded, also on Dec. 28, "We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy he is greatly missed). In addition, they offered Errol a chance to buy partial ownership of a Zambian emerald mine. "My brother and I paid for college through scholarships, loans and working two jobs simultaneously. After the divorce, Elon lived mostly with his father until he left South Africa at age 17 partly to avoid conscription in the South African army. My dad was not physically violent with me. In 1970, Errol married modelMaye Haldeman Musk before the pair welcomed three children: Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. Unlike his son, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Errol has mostly flown under the radar, though the father of seven has had an increasingly public profile over the last few years, largely due to his complicated family relationships. In an interview with Express, Cattrell recalled: One night, they were sitting in the living room and his dad said Everybody down! Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, grew up in South Africa and made his way via Canada to the U.S. as a transfer student before attending the Wharton School and becoming the billionaire tech founder he is today. It was not a good idea.. I wish. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done," Elon said. 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. "I said, 'Oh, all right.' Musk, Errol. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. Errol also added that his children were keenly aware of the country's government-sanctioned racial segregation. He also claimed, "My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years.". Bill Gates' mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM. With his new riches, Errol also bought half of an emerald mine. 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. All About Errol Musk." 2021, https://www.theonion.com/the-richest-person-in-every-state-and-how-they-made-the-1846312073. When the same pattern of racist behavior happens at all $tsla locations, its the company thats racist, and the fish rots from @elonmusk s head.https://t.co/aKAP7vrT6G https://t.co/EMN9xQH06V. A common story about Musk on social media is that his father owned part of an emerald mine, providing a bedrock of wealth that buoyed Elon up to his current level of success. Elon Musk was highlighted as the wealthiest resident of Texas, Americas second-biggest state. Not for 'At Least' a Few Weeks, Says Elon Musk, Elon Musk's Ex Justine Calls Twitter Employees' Letter Protesting Reported Staff Cuts a 'Very Bad Idea', Elon Musk Says He's Buying Twitter to 'Help Humanity' And Doesn't Want It to Be 'Free-for-All Hellscape', Elon Musk Says Kanye West's Twitter Was Reinstated Before He Took Over the Company, Elon Musk Plans to Cut 75 Percent of Twitter's Workforce If He Takes Over the Company: Report. His father, Errol Musk, had a casual attitude towards the family's considerable wealth, including the stones that came from the Zambian emerald mine in which Errol owned a half share. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. In a February 2018 interview with Business Insider South Africa, Musk's father said he did own half share in an emerald mine in Zambia. So I thought, I can be company. Yeah, I was sad for my father. Elon has himself admitted that his father has a very high IQ and is brilliant at engineering.. His parents divorced. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane. In the biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, author Ashlee Vance wrote that Errol invested $28,000 in Elon and Kimbal's then-fledgling company, Zip2. Errol himself has an adventurous streak and is an avid sailor and pilot. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. It was revealed last weekthat he welcomed twochildren with an executiveat his artificial intelligence company, Neuralink, just weeks before hissecond child with his ex-girlfriend, Grimes,was born. For example, on Dec. 28, 2019, hetweetedthat his father "didn't own an emerald mine" and that he (Elon) had worked his way through college, ending up with around $100,000 in student debt. Fortier, Alexander. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. Elon Musk does not care about Black people.Example after example after example. So it was very formative for him. He also called the whole rumor "BS.". Elon was a witness to this, bullets flying around, Cattrell further claimed. Instead Errol returned to South Africa with a half-share in a Zambian emerald mine, which would help to fund his family's lavish lifestyle of yachts, skiing holidays, and expensive computers. Errol has long since retired from the engineering business and now lives a quiet life in the Western Cape in South Africa. Errol Musk (born 1946) is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was once a co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika . In December 2019, Elon denied the emerald mine-and-lavish-lifestyle story on Twitter, saying it was a lie. Harris Goe Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, Murdaugh son collapsed outside court after sitting stone-faced through dad's 6-week murder trial: source, Murderer Alex Murdaugh shaves head for latest mugshot after learning his fate, Kelly Osbourne posts first photo of baby son as he hangs out with uncle Jack, Greys Anatomy alum Isaiah Washington retiring from acting: The haters have won, Madonna watches new boyfriend Joshua Poppers fight in New York City, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. The most direct address was a tweet that said his father "didn't own an emerald mind [and] I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt.". People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. In that context, its probably understandable that Musk decided enough was enough and felt he needed to answer the claims online. Its so terrible, you cant believe it.. In that way, Errol might be like estranged Elon after all. Meanwhile, Musk's defenders often say that the mogul has denied this story, though that is not precisely true either. In 2019, Elon Musk confronted the Twitter talking point about his father's supposed emerald mine head on, writing, "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending. Rolling Stone reported in 2017 that Errol was, by his own account, making money in the often dangerous worlds of construction and emerald mining at times so much that he claims he couldnt close his safe.. His net worth is. Errol and Heide eventually divorced after an 18-year marriage. There is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Elon Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general benefitted from apartheid. "[4][8], In 1972, he was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. It would have been great if someone was paying for my college, but my dad had neither the ability nor the inclination to do so. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. She won't speak to me or engage me if we're in the same room which we have been often.". . Instead, we will concentrate on the two Business Insider South Africa articles mentioned by Arnold that appeared to provide the roots of the "apartheid emerald mine" rumor. The article attributed the source of Elon Musks wealth to apartheid. by Marilynn Manuel 13-02-2023 13:43 Jain, Sanya. It spoke of the divorce of Elon's parents, Errol and Maye Musk, and also contained a quick mention of an emerald mine. SpaceX, his rocket company, is valued at $20 billion-plus. "I said, 'Oh, all right'. SASSA: Here are your March 2023 grant payment dates. Arnold, Jeremy. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. Nothing, nothing. It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would laterbreak the rules of the motoring businesswith Tesla, then go on tochange spaceflight with SpaceX, BI reported. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldn't refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? 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/. Vance, Ashlee. Errol Musk was born in 1946 in Pretoria to Walter Henry James Musk and Cora Amelia Robinson. Journalism strengthens democracy. In an interview with Business Insider South Africa, Errol admitted that, at one point, he literally made more money than he could physically handle. 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. The 76-year-old hasnt ruled out having more children, saying: The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford. [17] Later in life, after splitting from Heide Bezuidenhout, he fathered two children with her daughter (his former step-daughter) Jana Bezuidenhout; a son born in 2017 and a daughter born in 2019. After Maye and Errol divorced in 1980, Elon mostly lived with his father, who says he owned thoroughbred horses, a yacht, several houses and a Cessna. It was kind of weird for them to walk into Tiffanys. In an interview with Rolling Stone, during which he reportedly cried, Elon called his father "a terrible human being" and "evil. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. This article forms part of the archives of Business Insider South Africa, which was published as a partnership between News24 and Insider Inc between 2018 and 2023. The child, a boy named Elliot Rush, is now 5 years old. 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. We reached out to Reich to ask if he could provide evidence of his assertion, but did not receive a response before this story was published. The headline of the story read, "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money).". "Zip2." I couldn't even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. It was also shared on Reddit.com. I couldnt even afford a second [computer] at [web software company] Zip2, so [I] programmed at night and the website only worked during the day. Ask him." Earlier in this story, we referenced a July 3, 2020, tweet from Elon that mentioned Vance's interview. According to the Twitter flag, Musk claimed in 2014 to Forbes that he had an emerald mine in Zambia. ", Though he claimed Elon and Kimbal were upset with him for fathering a child with a woman they felt was "their sister," Errol told The Sun, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. We were going to fly into Jeddah and there was a religious holiday and they said if we come in now we have to pay $2,000 but if we wait 10 days we can come in at no charge. The tweet was shared as a screenshot on Imgur.com, which showed the image had been viewed more than 300,000 times. 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. I was 15 and really wanted to go with him but didn't realize how dangerous it was. Errol. I can't see any reason not to. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. We did not receive a response from Forbes PR. [13] After engaging in extra-marital affairs,[4] Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, and both sons moved in with their father. @Keewa tweeted on May 9, 2020, Remind: Elon Musk inherited money from his fathers apartheid emerald mine, that doesnt mean hes clever. Elon called the story "actually accurate." ---. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire." This is why people are switching to @TheBabylonBee! Musk wrote. The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it was seed money from his father's wealth from the mine that made it possible for him to become the American billionaire he is today. 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." On holidays, Errol and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. In an email to Rolling Stone, Musk's father said he smacked the Tesla CEO only once and on the bottom. He also said that the only criminal charges that had been filed against him from when he killed three home invaders in self-defense had been cleared. how did jacqueline bernice mitchell die, los zetas brutal killings,