The Tragic Truth About Elon Musk

The list of everyday folks and celebs who can't stand Elon Musk is long — and still growing. However, despite the focus so often being on the shady side of Musk, the tech genius hasn't always had it easy. Yes, he's worth billions and, as of 2025, was the richest man on the planet, but he's had far from an enchanted life.

As Musk has so often told his followers, he doesn't consider his childhood a happy one, largely due to his home life. While he credits his dad with teaching him the fundamentals of physics, engineering, and construction that would help shape his career, Musk is adamant he's had to work hard for everything he's ever achieved. "Haven't inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift," he once tweeted. But his strained relationship with his father isn't the only dark cloud he's experienced. This is the tragic truth of Elon Musk.

For as long as his family can remember, Elon Musk was a voracious reader, seeking knowledge on a wide breadth of subjects. In fact, he showed so much promise that Musk's mom, Maye Musk, decided to start his education early. However, that meant "Elon was the youngest and smallest guy in his school," Maye told Esquire in 2012. Between his large brain and small stature, he quickly became the target of bullies. "Kids gave Elon a very hard time, and it had a huge impact on his life," brother Kimbal Musk recalled. Making matters worse, sister Tosca Musk shared how going to school in Pretoria, South Africa, was nothing like the U.S. "There was no recourse," she told the mag. "[Elon] hated it so much."

Indeed, that hatred was justified. As Elon told biographer Walter Isaacson, the torment wasn't just mental; it was also physical. Perhaps the worst incident occurred in high school when a verbal altercation turned violent. The future Tesla CEO was brutally beaten, kicked numerous times in the head and pushed down concrete stairs. "When they got finished, I couldn't even recognise his face," Kimbal told Isaacson. "You could barely see his eyes." Elon was rushed to hospital and missed a week of school, but his injuries lasted much longer. In May 2013, he tweeted that he was left with a jagged septum that bothered him for decades. "Harder to breathe as I got older, so time to fix," Elon wrote.

He may be the richest man on Earth, but Elon Musk did not grow up in the lap of luxury. Although his father, Errol Musk, was wealthy, he was also incredibly strict and refused to share his riches. Speaking to Esquire in 2012, Elon's sister, Tosca Musk, recalled how they were the only family she knew without any sort of hired help. "He'd have us play this game," she said of their dad. "We'd have to do everything an American child would do: We'd have to clean the house, mow the lawn, do all sorts of American chores."

However, making their childhood truly difficult was mom Maye Musk's sad love story. As the matriarch later confessed to Harper's Bazaar, Errol was abusive, and she feared leaving him. "He told me over and over that I was stupid, ugly, boring," Maye revealed. "He was very rich, but he made sure I had nothing."

Ultimately, she and the kids ran away when Elon was 8, and Maye set out to rebuild their life, but it was an uphill climb. "I brought my kids up as a single mother with very little money," Maye told The Guardian. Later, they moved to her native Canada in 1989 and into a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto, then a rent-controlled unit. "It took three weeks to clean, then I saved to buy $5 sheets," Maye told the mag, noting how Elon slept on the couch. "Eventually, I bought beds, then a computer, and after that chairs — you can always work on the floor," she mused.

Elon Musk's relationship with dad Errol Musk completely disintegrated over the years. As a child, Elon witnessed his father abusing his mother, even once trying to physically stop him when he was 5 years old. He also experienced Errol's harshness first-hand, telling biographer Ashlee Vance that Errol made life miserable — accusations Errol has denied. "Elon needs to grow up," Errol told the Daily Mail in 2018.

Even so, that hasn't stopped Elon from painting his father in a bad light. Speaking to biographer Walter Isaacson, the billionaire recalled how he would regularly be told he was pathetic by his father. "It was mental torture," Musk said. "He sure knew how to make anything terrible." One particular incident that cut deep followed the bullying incident that sent him to hospital. Elon said he received no compassion from his dad, who, shockingly, sided with the bullies. "I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless," Elon told Isaacson.

Interestingly, Elon decided to live alone with his dad for a while. After Maye Musk moved the kids away when Elon was 8, he returned to his father's at age 10. "That's because of his evil grandmother — she made him feel guilty," Maye told Harper's Bazaar. Elon himself said to Rolling Stone he felt sorry for his dad because "he seemed very sad and lonely by himself." Unfortunately, it was a mistake. "He was such a terrible human being," Elon alleged.

Elon Musk got super rich thanks to his tech savvy, but his business acumen hasn't always been as impressive. It all started in 1995 when Elon and his brother Kimbal Musk founded their first software company, Zip2. Just four years later, they sold it for a whopping $307 million, with Elon banking $22 million. Rather than taking a break, he used half of that money to start X.com that same year, a company that would eventually morph into PayPal and be bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. Following that transaction, Elon netted $165 million and again wasted no time reinvesting his cash. He founded SpaceX just months later and became the Chair of Tesla Motors in 2004.

Since then, both companies have become massive successes and yet, in 2010, Elon revealed he was on the brink of bankruptcy. According to court documents filed as part of his divorce from his first wife, Justine Musk, Elon admitted, per The New York Times, "About four months ago, I ran out of cash." Turns out he had invested every last cent into his companies to keep them afloat and, in doing so, was forced to start living off of loans from friends.

In addition to using up all of his money, Elon Musk's dedication to his job has required numerous other sacrifices. Speaking to The New York Times in 2018, Musk claimed he hadn't taken off more than a week from work since 2001 — and that was because he was sick with malaria. Tesla, in particular, took a big toll, especially when he tried to keep production of the Tesla Model 3 on track in 2018. In addition to working 120-hour weeks, Musk would often sleep on a conference room couch (sometimes on the floor) and refuse to even go outside. "There were times when I didn't leave the factory for three or four days," he told the outlet. "This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids, and seeing friends."

Indeed, he almost missed his brother's wedding in Spain that year. Jumping on a flight with no time to spare, Musk landed two hours before the nuptials, carried out his best man duties, and immediately flew back home to the Tesla factory. With such a hectic schedule, the billionaire has admitted to using the prescription drug Ambien to help him sleep and told The New York Times that the rigorous pace was taking a physical toll as well. "It's not been great, actually," he said of his health. "I've had friends come by who are really concerned."

On the outside, it's easy to assume that Elon Musk has everything he's ever wanted. However, he's been candid about his struggles with mental health. During an appearance at the 2023 DealBook Summit, Musk told the audience he has "demons of the mind," which help him be creative but that they also have a darker side. It's a notion he elaborated on during a 2024 conversation with Don Lemon, admitting, "There are times when I have sort of a negative chemical state in my brain, like depression, I guess." And yet, he's been an outspoken skeptic of traditional medication used to treat depression, once tweeting, "Zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much." That's why, he told Lemon, he instead prefers to take a small amount of ketamine every other week, as prescribed by his doctor. "Ketamine is helpful for getting one out of a negative frame of mind," he said of the drug normally used as an anesthetic.

As it turns out, Musk's darker thoughts go back to his childhood. "I did have this existential crisis when I was around 12 about what's the meaning of life," he shared at the DealBook Summit, noting how all of the religious and philosophical books he was reading left him asking, "Isn't it all pointless ... Why exist?"

Elon Musk married first wife Justine Musk in 2000, and they began to grow their family two years later. The couple's first child, Nevada Alexander, was born in 2002; however, just 10 weeks later, the new parents experienced indescribable heartbreak. Their son suddenly stopped breathing while in his crib and was rushed to the hospital, where he spent three days on life support. Nevada ultimately died due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), an unexplained condition in which no cause of death is actually ever discovered.

While Elon hasn't spoken much about the loss, Justine told Esquire in 2012 that he didn't know how to handle it and tried to ignore it, opting for a stiff-upper-lip approach. "He doesn't do well in the dark places," she explained. "He's forward moving and I think it's a survival thing with him."

The tech entrepreneur has since called Nevada's death the worst thing that's ever happened to him and actually banned Alex Jones from X (formerly Twitter) in 2022 for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. "I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame," he slammed.

Elon Musk is a father of 12 who has often quipped about repopulating the earth, but according to one of his kids, his parenting isn't exactly top-notch. Musk and daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson have been publicly feuding since 2022 when she filed to legally change her gender identity, as well as her name. In papers seen by TMZ, the 18-year-old explained her decision to drop her famous last name by slamming, "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."

It seems the feeling was mutual, as Musk told psychologist Jordan Peterson, "I lost my son, essentially" (via Daily Wire). He also alleged he was tricked into signing papers he didn't understand, which allowed Wilson to receive gender-affirming care, and claimed she was "killed by the woke mind virus." Wilson wasted no time firing back. Speaking with NBC News in 2024, she accused her father of being absent and mocking her at a young age for being feminine. "He is uncaring and narcissistic," she told the outlet. "He was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high — it was cruel."

Musk maintained that his kids were always happy with him growing up, but Wilson again countered his side of the story, this time in a lengthy Threads post. "You are not a family man, you are a serial adulterer who won't stop f***ing lying about your own children," she fumed.

Elon Musk has put many things on the back burner in order for his businesses to succeed, and that includes his personal relationships. Indeed, his first marriage to Justine Musk fell apart in 2008 because, as she wrote for Marie Claire in 2010, she could no longer play second fiddle to his career. "I didn't want to be a sideline player in the multimillion-dollar spectacle of my husband's life," she recalled. "I wanted to love and be loved, the way we had before he made all his millions." She pushed for therapy and Elon eventually agreed to counseling, but after three sessions, he ultimately opted for divorce. "He was running two companies and carrying a planet of stress," Justine mused.

Elon's relationship with singer Grimes faced a similar obstacle. The pair, who first got together in 2018, were on and off for years before breaking up for good in 2022. As Elon told Page Six in 2021, his job wasn't exactly making things easy. "It's mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas and her work is primarily in LA," he shared.