Times Investigation
Elon Musk’s Father Accused of Child Sexual Abuse
Errol Musk has been accused of sexually abusing
five of his children and stepchildren since 1993, a Times investigation found.
Family members have appealed to Elon Musk for help.
Kirsten
Grind John
Eligon
By
Kirsten Grind and John Eligon
Kirsten
Grind reported from San Francisco. John Eligon reported from Johannesburg and
Pretoria, South Africa.
Sept. 23,
2025
Elon Musk
has not been shy about putting much of his life on public display. The tech
billionaire posts daily on his social network X, has cooperated with two
biographies and often speaks on podcasts and at conferences.
But there
is one part of his life that he has not revealed much about — his longtime
estrangement from his father, Errol Musk, who has become increasingly outspoken
about his family and business ventures tied to the Musk name.
A New
York Times investigation found that a significant factor in Elon Musk’s rupture
with his father stems from accusations against Errol Musk of child sex abuse.
The allegations have repeatedly spilled over into Elon Musk’s life as relatives
have contacted him for help and he has sometimes taken action to intercede,
according to personal letters, emails and interviews with family members.
The
family’s troubles have entangled Elon Musk in a painful three-decade
multigenerational saga that continues to trail him. The fallout has kept the
54-year-old mogul tethered to South Africa, where he was born and where Errol
Musk lives, even as he has built a business empire in the United States and
briefly ascended to political power as a close adviser to President Trump.
The
allegations against Errol Musk involve five of his children and stepchildren,
whom he was accused of abusing in South Africa and California, according to
police and court records, personal correspondence, social workers and
interviews with family members.
The
earliest accusation was in 1993 when Errol Musk’s stepdaughter, then 4 years
old, told relatives he had touched her at the family house. A decade later, the
stepdaughter said she caught him sniffing her dirty underwear. Some family
members have also accused Errol Musk of abusing two of his daughters and a
stepson. And as recently as 2023, family members and a social worker attempted
to intervene after his then 5-year-old son said his father had groped his
buttocks.
Three
separate police investigations were opened, according to police and court
records, as well as family members. Two of the inquiries ended, while it’s
unclear what happened in the third. Errol Musk, 79, has not been convicted of
any crime.
The abuse
allegations have caused strife within the Musk family, with some relatives
turning to Elon Musk — who is Errol Musk’s eldest child — for help. Around
2010, one relative wrote Elon Musk a five-page letter about some of the
accusations and implored him to intervene.
“We
really need your advice, help and guidance in these matters because we daily
see these children suffer,” the relative wrote in the letter, which was viewed
by The Times.
It was
unclear if Elon Musk read the letter. But an assistant for him messaged a
family member after relatives wrote to him about the abuse allegations. The
billionaire has also provided financial support for his stepfamily and siblings
from his father’s third marriage. He once tried to keep those family members in
California, where they would be far from Errol Musk. He was not involved in the
police investigations in South Africa.
Errol
Musk, who has at least nine children and stepchildren and has been married to
three women, maintains a powerful grip over much of the family. The former
stepdaughter, whom he was accused of touching when she was 4, said she later
had a child with him when she was in her 20s. She has struggled with drug use,
while her mother — who married Errol Musk twice — has grappled with mental
health issues.
Errol
Musk has “left a massive wound in our family,” Elmie Smit, whose sister was his
third wife, said in her first on-the-record interview about the allegations.
She said she has emailed Elon Musk about some of the allegations and sometimes
heard from an assistant.
In
response to questions from The Times, Errol Musk said “the reports are false
and nonsense in the extreme.” He said that the accusations were concocted by
family members who were “putting the children up to say false things” and that
they were trying to get money from Elon Musk.
In one
email to The Times, Errol Musk also claimed to be aware of only one abuse
allegation, but in the same message offered explanations for the circumstances
around two others.
He added
that he has a good relationship with Elon Musk and they “are very close.”
Elon Musk
and his personal lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. In 2017, the
billionaire teared up when he told Rolling Stone magazine that his father had
done “almost every evil thing you could possibly think of.” In a 2023
authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk said he does not
communicate with Errol Musk.
A diagram
shows a family tree of Errol Musk, the father of billionaire entrepreneur Elon
Musk. Errol Musk has seven children with four different women, three of whom he
was married to, and one of whom is his stepdaughter from his third marriage.
The Times
reviewed court and police documents from jurisdictions in California and South
Africa, as well as more than 50 emails, text messages, personal notes and
letters, which detailed certain accusations more than others. The police and
courts in South Africa and Los Angeles declined to release some records, citing
children’s privacy. Other records could not be located.
The Times
also interviewed family members, social workers and people close to the Musks.
Some requested anonymity because of the sensitive situations, while others
feared retribution. Other family members declined to comment or did not respond
to requests for comment. The Times does not name children in sexual abuse
cases.
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In recent
months, some family members have been angered by Errol Musk’s apparent attempts
to capitalize on Elon Musk’s fame. Errol Musk has said he worked on a meme coin
called MuskIt and planned to build a Musk tower in Dubai. (He has since told
The Times he was “not associated” with the projects.)
All the
while, some family members said, he has papered over or lied about their family
history. Ms. Smit said she decided to speak up after Errol Musk was interviewed
in February on a South African podcast called “Wide Awake,” during which he
rambled about his life without mentioning any turmoil.
In June,
Ms. Smit spoke anonymously to the podcast host, Joshua Rubin, describing some
of the abuse allegations, including the 1993 incident with Errol Musk’s
4-year-old stepdaughter.
The
stepdaughter, who is now 37 and has several children, publicly addressed the
situation for the first time with The Times. She did not respond to questions
about the abuse allegations involving Errol Musk but said she and her children
did not live with him.
“My kids
are safe and looked after,” she said.
She said
her main financial support comes from Elon Musk, who sends money monthly and
has bought her a car. “Elon has always been there,” she said.
Born and
raised in Pretoria, South Africa’s executive capital, he gained prominence as a
businessman in his 20s and 30s, including as a partner in an engineering
company. At one point, he was a Pretoria City Council member.
In 1970,
he married Maye Haldeman, a dietitian and model. They had three children: Elon;
Tosca Musk, who now runs a streaming service for romance films; and Kimbal
Musk, who became an entrepreneur.
In 1979,
Errol Musk and Maye Musk divorced. She wrote in a 2019 memoir that he had
physically and verbally abused her. Errol Musk denied the abuse to The Times.
Elon
Musk, too, had a tense relationship with his father. In the 2023 authorized
biography, he recounted how he had stood up to a school bully as a child and
lost a fight, after which Errol Musk berated him for an hour.
“He lost
it, went ballistic, as he often did,” Elon Musk said. “He had zero compassion.”
While he
chose to live with Errol Musk through much of high school after his parents
divorced, Elon Musk later told his biographer it had been a terrible idea. “I
didn’t yet know how horrible he was,” he said.
Errol
Musk was briefly married a second time, to Sue Wilson, a model. In 1989, Elon
Musk, then 17, left South Africa for North America. His brother and sister
followed, as did Maye Musk.
Errol
Musk wed a third time around 1992. His bride was Heide-Mari Bezuidenhout, who
was about 19 years younger than he was. She had three young children — two boys
and a girl — with her first husband, who had died in a car accident. Ms.
Bezuidenhout struggled with her mental health, family members said. She and
Errol Musk soon had a daughter.
In 1993,
Ms. Bezuidenhout’s 4-year-old daughter from her first marriage told her aunt,
Ms. Smit, that Errol Musk had placed her on a row of trash cans at the family
house in Pretoria and touched her. Ms. Smit said she and other relatives
immediately contacted the authorities.
The
police opened an investigation. Family members provided a case number for the
incident that the South African police confirmed. The Times filed a public
records request for the case file in July; the police have not decided on the
request.
Ms.
Bezuidenhout later withdrew charges against Errol Musk as part of a divorce
settlement, which included a house, car and monthly allowance, according to
family members and the 2010 letter from the relative seeking Elon Musk’s help.
After the
divorce, Errol Musk said that a judge had granted him custody of their young
daughter and that two judges rejected the abuse allegations. Ms. Bezuidenhout
could visit only with a social worker present, he said. The Times searched for
court records and the judges, but did not find records to verify Errol Musk’s
claims.
In 1996,
Ms. Bezuidenhout briefly married and divorced a third husband. She then entered
a psychiatric hospital after suffering from depression, family members said.
Her three children from her first marriage went into an independent welfare
home.
Around
1999, she remarried Errol Musk, who retained custody of their daughter. Her
three other children left welfare care in 2000. The next year, Errol Musk and
Ms. Bezuidenhout had another daughter.
Coming to
Los Angeles
By 2002,
Elon Musk was a millionaire after a Silicon Valley start-up he founded, which
became PayPal, was bought by eBay. Then living in Los Angeles, he established
the rocket maker SpaceX.
That
year, Errol Musk, Ms. Bezuidenhout and their family traveled to California to
see Elon Musk, who bought them a $2 million house in Malibu.
Within
months, the situation unraveled.
One day,
Errol Musk’s family was heading to a movie when his stepdaughter, then 14, said
she had forgotten her sweatshirt. She returned to her bedroom for it and found
her stepfather sniffing her dirty underwear, according to family members and
personal notes. The family called the police. Elon Musk was also alerted.
Family
members said they filed a complaint with child protective services in Los
Angeles. A department spokeswoman, citing victim privacy, declined to comment.
The Los Angeles Police Department also denied a records request, saying
investigation records were exempt from disclosure.
A
restraining order was issued against Errol Musk, three people with knowledge of
the filing said. Ms. Bezuidenhout petitioned for divorce in Los Angeles
Superior Court citing “irreconcilable differences” and requested custody of the
children, according to the filing. The petition was dismissed in 2009 for
inaction.
Errol
Musk denied the accusation. He said he had been cleaning up his stepdaughter’s
room after returning from a trip and had found the house “in a terrible state.”
The
stepdaughter said while she was in Malibu, Elon Musk took her and her siblings
on weekly outings if they performed well at school. He told them they needed to
read a lot of books if they wanted to make it in life, she said.
After the
abuse allegations, Elon Musk moved his father to a boat in Los Angeles and then
back to South Africa. Errol Musk said he left the United States of his own
accord and has said the estrangement from his eldest son began around then.
Elon Musk
wanted to keep the children in California to protect them from his father,
family members and friends said. He explored seeking legal guardianship of
them, they said.
Back in
South Africa, Errol Musk had become financially reliant on his eldest sons. He
emailed Elon Musk asking for money.
“I am now
totally dependent on your card here,” Errol Musk wrote in the email, which was
obtained by The Times.
Kimbal
Musk, who was copied, replied, “Financially, this has been horrible, but much
worse for Elon than you. Not just in absolute dollars (which are considerable)
but in the pain and frustration.”
“The
scariest thing that I’ve learned is that the kids preferred living in the
children’s home than with either you or Heide,” Kimbal Musk added, referring to
the independent welfare home.
In the
2023 biography, Elon Musk told his biographer that his father had been
“uncomfortably attentive” to his stepdaughter at the time and that he was
furious about Errol Musk’s “inappropriate behavior.”
‘A very
difficult situation’
In 2003,
Ms. Bezuidenhout and four of her children voluntarily returned to South Africa,
which they considered home, family members said. (Her eldest son followed
later.) She then divorced Errol Musk for a second time, in 2005. The next year,
her younger son, age 16, died in a car accident near Malmesbury, South Africa.
She wrote to Elon Musk around 2007 that she was “in a very bad situation” and
living in a house with no bathroom or kitchen.
Elon
Musk, who became chief executive of the electric carmaker Tesla in 2008, paid a
contractor to fix Ms. Bezuidenhout’s house and build a fence around it, family
members said. He also paid for private school for his half sisters, according
to emails.
At the
same time, the former stepdaughter was descending into drugs, which she said
was fueled by anguish over her brother’s death. She spent time in jail on
charges that she stole jewelry from Errol Musk and Ms. Bezuidenhout to pay for
drugs, according to family notes.
By 2009,
Ms. Bezuidenhout had reconnected with Errol Musk, bringing her children back
into his orbit. One night when the former stepdaughter, then 21, was home from
college, Errol Musk kissed her and stuck his tongue into her mouth, she said in
an application for an interim protection order.
“I don’t
want him to be allowed to come close to me,” the former stepdaughter wrote in
the interim protection order, which she was granted by the Magistrate’s Court
for the district of Stellenbosch.
In his
response to The Times, Errol Musk said his former stepdaughter pounced on him
in a spare bedroom while he was sleeping. She “inappropriately kissed me,” he
said.
In the
interim protection order, the former stepdaughter also directly accused Errol
Musk of sexually abusing his two daughters with Ms. Bezuidenhout and his
stepson years before he had died, without providing details. The letter Ms.
Bezuidenhout wrote to Elon Musk around 2007 also referenced abuse allegations
by one of her two daughters with Errol Musk. The relative who wrote the letter
to Elon Musk around 2010 noted the same allegations as the interim protection
order.
Errol
Musk called the accusations that he had abused his stepson “nonsense” and that
he had abused his two daughters “absurd.”
The
former stepdaughter dropped out of college and fell further into drugs,
according to family members and family notes. She told The Times the trauma she
experienced growing up led to her drug use.
In 2011,
Ms. Smit, the sister of Ms. Bezuidenhout, wrote to Elon Musk for help. His
assistant replied, saying she had spoken with the billionaire and “it goes
without saying that you are all in a very difficult situation there.” The
assistant called the circumstances of Errol Musk’s former stepdaughter “dire”
and said Elon Musk would pay for her to stay in a rehabilitation clinic.
The
former stepdaughter went to rehab for a week or two, family members said. For a
time, she became homeless, they said.
30,000
rand
Errol
Musk’s former stepdaughter later reached out to him for support. By then, she
was about 29. They became intimate, Errol Musk said in a 2018 interview with
The Sunday Times.
He and
his former stepdaughter were “lonely, lost people,” he said. “One thing led to
another — you can call it God’s plan or nature’s plan.”
Errol
Musk has said in interviews that he had not seen his former stepdaughter for
years, which family members dispute. He has also said that he and his former
stepdaughter had children together in 2017 and 2019, but told The Times it was
“none of your business” how many children he had with her.
The
former stepdaughter said she has one child with Errol Musk. She has been clean
from drugs for several years, she added, with her life changing after having
children. Family members said she has accepted some financial support from
Errol Musk for their son.
In 2022,
their son — then about 5 — said he had been groped by his father, family
members said.
“He said,
‘dad gropes his behind,’” Ms. Bezuidenhout, the boy’s grandmother, texted a
relative around 2023. “He screamed, ‘no dad.’” Relatives contacted the police,
including as recently as last year, according to text messages and emails.
A social
worker who was involved said in an interview that she tried meeting with family
members to discuss what happened, but they would not cooperate. The social
worker called the police.
The
police opened an investigation, said family members, who provided a case
number. A police spokeswoman confirmed the case number was for an investigation
into child sexual abuse allegations but declined to name those involved.
Prosecutors dropped the case because of insufficient evidence, the spokeswoman
said.
In
response to The Times, Errol Musk said, “There was no evidence because this is
nonsense.”
Around
2023, Elon Musk began paying 30,000 rand a month, about $1,700, to support his
former stepsister, family members said.
That
year, he also made a rare comment about Errol Musk on social media. In reply to
a post about his financial background, Elon Musk said that one condition that
he and Kimbal Musk had in supporting their father was that Errol Musk would not
engage in bad behavior.
Their
father “nonetheless did,” Elon Musk wrote.
Zimasa
Matiwane contributed reporting from Pretoria, South Africa. Kirsten Noyes
contributed research.
Kirsten
Grind is an investigative business reporter for The Times, writing stories
about companies, chief executives and billionaires across Silicon Valley and
the technology industry.
John
Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Times, covering a wide range of
events and trends that influence and shape the lives of ordinary people across
southern Africa.
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