Elon Musk’s estranged father, Errol Musk, is facing fresh scrutiny after new allegations emerged accusing him of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren across decades.
The 79-year-old South African engineer, who has long had a strained and complicated relationship with members of his family, strongly denies the claims, calling them fabricated and financially motivated.
According to police reports, court documents, and interviews obtained by The New York Times on September 23, the allegations against Errol span incidents in both California and South Africa, where Errol lives and where Elon was born. The earliest accusation dates back to 1993, when his then four-year-old stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, allegedly told relatives that Errol had touched her inappropriately.
Ten years later, Jana claimed she caught Errol sniffing her dirty underwear. The story is further complicated by the fact that Errol later had a child with Jana years after divorcing her mother, Heide Bezuidenhout, in 2004. At the time, Errol defended the relationship, sparking international headlines in 2018.
Family members allege that Errol also abused two of his daughters and a stepson. More recently, in 2023, a five-year-old son reportedly told relatives and a social worker that Errol had groped him. That allegation prompted further investigation by South African authorities.
According to the Times, three separate police investigations into Errol Musk were opened over the years. Two have since been closed, and the outcome of the third remains unclear. Despite the seriousness of the claims, Errol has not been convicted of any crime.
In response, Errol issued a sharp denial. “The reports are false and nonsense in the extreme,” he told the New York Times, alleging that some relatives were manipulating the children to “say false things” in an attempt to gain money from his billionaire son, Elon Musk.
While Errol insisted he was only aware of one allegation, the Times noted that in the same correspondence, he appeared to offer explanations for at least two others.
The allegations have not drawn a public response from Elon Musk himself. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has had a famously distant and at times hostile relationship with his father, though Errol told the Times that they remain on good terms. “We are very close,” he said, describing their relationship as warm despite past criticisms.
Earlier this year, Errol took a public swipe at Elon’s parenting style, claiming his son had outsourced fatherhood. “He hasn’t been a good dad,” Errol said in a February interview on the Wide Awake podcast. “They were too rich, too many nannies. Then he had five children with the same woman, five sons all brought up. Each one had its own nanny.”
Errol Musk, who has at least nine biological children and two stepchildren, has been married three times to Maye Haldeman, Sue Musk, and Heide Bezuidenhout and has often been at the center of family controversy.
The Times report raises troubling new questions about Errol Musk’s past, but also underscores how deeply fractured the Musk family remains.
With no convictions recorded and at least one unresolved investigation, the allegations against him continue to hover in a cloud of suspicion and denial.
Erizia Rubyjeana
Follow us on:
