“I’d have to pull them apart,” Maye Musk recalls in her memoir of navigating fights between her two adult sons
Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG22/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- In an interview with CBS Mornings, Maye Musk opened up about her new book and raising three children as a single mom, including her billionaire son, Elon Musk
- In her memoir, the 78-year-old model recalls serving as mediator when her two sons would fight in the early days of forming their startup, Zip2
- “He just wants to do good in the world, but that means you stand on a lot of toes,” Maye told CBS Mornings of Elon
Maye Musk, a dietitian and mother of the tech mogul Elon Musk, is opening up about her surprising life’s journey, from the hardships she faced as a single parent to becoming a cover model in her 70s.
Outside of her own success, being a mom doesn’t stop. When her two sons were adults, Maye wrote in her latest memoir that she had to serve as a negotiator when Kimbal and Elon fought as they launched their startup, Zip2.
“He just wants to do good in the world, but that means you stand on a lot of toes,” Maye, 78, said of Elon, the CEO of Tesla and controversial former top adviser to President Donald Trump, in an interview on CBS Mornings that aired on Wednesday, Sept. 16, while promoting her new book, Timeless.
In the memoir, which was published by Harper Wave this week, Maye recalled being asked to visit her sons as they were building their first startup centered around online city guides in Mountain View, Calif., in the 1990s.
“Their board had asked me to meet with them as they had disagreements at company meetings — brothers being brothers,” Maye writes in Timeless. “Sometimes they would even physically fight, in front of employees and in our sessions as well. I’d have to pull them apart. This behavior obviously had to change if they were going to keep leading companies.”
The men’s differing personalities added to the tension. Elon — who became both famous and infamous for his business acumen and for his outspoken behavior and sometimes unusual personal life behavior — was fact-based but his brother put people first, she writes.
“If you’re not working effectively, you should be fired. Simple,” writes Maye of Elon. “Kimbal, however, was always focused on people.”
Credit: Karwai Tang/Getty
The mom was there to help them work through their differences. Maye helped them find compromises and plan their next steps, she says.
“Even as young adults, they needed a mother’s help!” Maye recalls in Timeless. “The stress of building a company and working long hours was getting to them. They valued our family meetings.”
All of her children would find success: Elon is now the richest person in the world, according to Forbes, and Kimbal has made a name for himself as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Maye’s third child, Tosca, is a producer and director.
Beyond being a mother to famous children, Maye has led an interesting life. She was born in Canada and spent many years in South Africa. In the late 1970s, she divorced her husband, Errol Musk, with whom she shares her sons and daughter.
Credit: Harper Wave
After leaving what she described as an abusive relationship (allegations Errol has denied), Maye went on to become a respected author and nutritionist. In 2022, the longtime model made even more headlines when she graced the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 74.
For Maye, encouraging women to embrace their age — and themselves — is a longtime mission.
“This is the behind-the-scenes story of my second (and third, and fourth) acts,” wrote Maye when announcing the news of her latest book this past spring. “From surviving hardships to thriving in my seventies, I hope my story inspires you to embrace change at any age and believe the best is yet to come.”
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Others — including her daughter — say they have found their own strength after learning her story.
“My whole life, I’ve seen my mom do everything. As a result I think I’ll always expect her to be able to do everything,” Tosca wrote in SI‘s Swimsuit Issue cover story in 2022. “Sometimes I wonder whether it’s time I start limiting those expectations, as she gets older. But then I look at her again, still unstoppable, and I think, not yet.”
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