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. Arnold's story included answers from Errol about the mine, who said he had "very limited involvement" in it. Get to Know Errol Musk, Elon's "Brilliant," "Terrible" Father In a 2019 . coming from?. "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. Elon called the story "actually accurate." All About Errol Musk." This is not true," Elon told Rolling Stone in 2017. Once the Musk emerald story started circulating, and information about Musk's father Errol's past business dealings got out, a cavalcade of internet poo-pooers flocked to Twitter to lambast Musk . 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. Still, it wasarchived by the Internet Archive. According to the Twitter flag, Musk claimed in 2014 to Forbes that he had an emerald mine in Zambia. How A Rumor About Elon Musk's Family Emerald Mine Fortune Took A Life Elon and other family members have opened up about years of living in debt after they left South Africa. @spylinen tweeted, The mine was in Zambia, which became independent of the UK in 1964. Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment. Get to Know Errol Musk, Elon's "Brilliant," "Terrible" Father - MSN Later, on Sept. 20, 2022, hecalledRobert Reich "an idiot and a liar" for tweeting a video that pushed the emerald mine wealth rumor as fact. But I've been in physical danger before. In addition to Elon, Errol is dad to son Kimbal Musk and daughters Tosca, Alexandra and Asha Rose Musk. 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. The 76-year-old is most notable for being Elons estranged father, with the pair famously falling out several years ago. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. The 76-year-old is most notable for. Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. 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. Elon Musk isn't innovative. Im not sure if replying to a satire site and amplifying their articles reach is necessarily the best idea, but Musk felt that this was a hill worth dying on. 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. The Daily Mail has reported that Errol was a multimillionaire before the age of 30. It was authored by Jeremy Arnold with The Save Journalism Committee. The story also included the same information from Elon's tweets where he said again that he had "ended up with $100,000 of student debt. So it was very formative for him. In 2019, a Twitter user claimed that Musk's father Errol owned an emerald mine. The interview is no longer available on the Forbes website. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. "One thing led to another you can call it God's plan or nature's plan. Elon Musk (~16 years old) & Kimbal Musk sold gems from the Zambian emerald mine to world-famous "Tiffany & Co." on Fifth Avenue in New York - one of the world's most famous jewelers. Note: The reference to Zip2 concerned Elon's "first enterprise" in 1995. Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. Heres his story. Clash's same 2014 interview was also republished by AskMen.com on Jan. 2, 2015. In April 2014, Dana Hull and Patrick May penned an article for San Jose's The Mercury News with the headline, "The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk." He is the father of Elon Musk, the CEO of 'SpaceX,' 'Tesla, Inc.,' and 'Neuralink' and one of the co-founders of 'PayPal.' Errol is mostly known for his scandalous life and his estranged relationship with his children. Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council in 1972 and was an outspoken advocate for abolishing apartheid. D'Innocenzio, Anne. "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. So we went to this guy's prefab and he opened his safe and there was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money, he said. 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. "The Man Who's Revolutionizing The Future Of Driving -- And The Universe." His tweet is now viral with over 9.1 million views. Several respondents on social media disputed the emerald mine and privileged-lifestyle story, defending Musks intelligence and questioning the intelligence of the person who started the thread. "I paid my own way through collegethrough student loans, scholarships, working jobsand ended up with $100,000 of student debt," Musk says. I tried threats, rewards, intellectual arguments, emotional arguments, everything to try to change my father for the better, and he no way, it just got worse. According to Ashlee Vances 2017 biography of the Tesla founder, The Musk family owned one of the biggest houses in Pretoria thanks to the success of Errols engineering business, which included large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base.. I wish. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his mother, Maye Musk. After his divorce from Elons mother, Errol went on to wed HeideBezuidenhout, a young widow who already had two children, including 4-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout. Errol met Maye Haldeman the lady who would become his wife at Clapham High School. In 2018, Errol Musk interviewed Business Insider South Africa, where he told a story about bartering his way into partial ownership of an emerald mine in Zambia. The user tweeted: If this is half of an article is a small glimpse into the apartheid mines his [family-owned] haha even [T]he Onion tells more truthful stories than CNN and Fox. Errol Musk says teenage Elon Musk once casually walked around with emeralds in his pocket. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. "One thing he claims is he gave us a whole bunch of money to start, my brother and I, to start up our first company. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . All Rights Reserved. He began his career as an electromechanical engineer. Then he'd sue me and say that I was unfit to parent.". Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance How Elon Musk made his money - from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla ". R/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 5 Dec. 2019, www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/e6j76f/his_family_stole_an_emerald_mine/. Beyond that, we were unable to find any evidence that showed money generated from his father's involvement in the mine helped Elon build his wealth in North America. They also emphasize anecdotes from Elon and his mother about the hard work and squalor they endured in Canada in those years. Copyright Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. It was not a good idea.. Related stories Making better AI is Elon Musk's new object of . [2] In 1969, he became a 50% owner of an emerald mine on Lake Tanganyika,[2][5] that he bought for 40,000, funded by selling an airplane for 80,000 (the equivalent of 320,000 today). Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. SASSA: Here are your March 2023 grant payment dates. The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2009, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/24/plugged-in. [11] The family lived in Pretoria,[10][12] where Maye worked as a dietician and a model. The funny thing is I've not actually been that nervous. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford., In a follow-up tweet, Elon said his father didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt.. Business Insider South Africa, 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.co.za/how-elon-musks-family-came-to-own-an-emerald-mine-2018-2. To add to the truth, we went to Boston Chicken in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving because we couldnt afford a turkey. Instead, Musk has sought to dispel the general belief that he comes from wealth. Invest in the future today. You have no idea. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to Twitter to answer claims made by The Onion about how his family made their money in apartheid South Africa. 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. But that's more or less where the good fortune ended. 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. For 14 free days, you can have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. [2] His grandmother was the first chiropractor in Canada. According to media reports Errol reportedly owned an emerald mine in Zambia near Lake Tanganyika which enabled his family to live in luxury at the time. 2021, https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-musk-about-journalism. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. ", Errol and Elon have an acrimonious relationship. ---. I couldn't find my passport so I ended up grabbing my brother's which turned out to be six months overdue! According to the Internet Archive, the article was still available months after it was published, onSept. 1, 2014, but was gone by Sept. 18. "We went to this guy's prefab [home] and he opened his safe," Errol said. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. "And then there'd still be all these notes sticking out and we'd sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.". More answers and details are available in Arnold's article. It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would later break the rules of the motoring business with Tesla, then go on to change spaceflight with SpaceX. Elon was said to be particularly furious that his father had impregnated his stepsister. He just had a rich dad and a got lucky. 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. In 2018, Musk also told Business Insider that his father Errol purchased a 50 per cent share in the mine after selling a plane. His mother Maye responded on Twitter in December 2019 in defense of Elon. This article is actually accurate: https://t.co/eVpCX9V1NB. There is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Elon Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general benefitted from apartheid. Musk, Bezos, Gates: How these billionaires got their start