Elon Musk’s dad, Errol Musk, 79, accused of sexually abusing his children & stepchildren

Errol Musk, 79, the father of billionaire Elon Musk, 54, has been accused of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren since 1993, according to a New York Times (NYT) investigative report on Sep. 23.

Errol dismissed the allegations as “false”, in response to queries from NYT.

He also said 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.

Errol added that he is "very close" to Elon.

Relied on multiple sources for story

NYT reported that it relied on interviews, personal letters, and emails with family members, as well as court and police records, personal correspondence, and going on the record with social workers to piece together its investigation.

Errol reportedly has at least nine children and stepchildren.

He has been married to three women.

NYT reported that he “maintains a powerful grip over much of the family”.

Elon did not respond to NYT's request for comment.

Earliest accusation in 1993

The earliest accusation against Errol was in 1993, when his four-year-old stepdaughter told relatives he had touched her at the family house.

He had allegedly placed her on a row of trash cans at the house in Pretoria, Africa, and touched her.

Relatives immediately contacted the authorities, and an investigation was opened.

Errol's third wife at the time, Heide-Mari Bezuidenhout, who is the mother of the girl, withdrew charges as part of her divorce settlement from Errol.

They later remarried.

Allegedly sniffed stepdaughter's underwear

Sometime in 2002, the stepdaughter, then 14, said she caught Errol sniffing her dirty underwear.

The incident occurred in California when Errol and Bezuidenhout, whom he divorced and remarried, visited Elon in the United States.

The family were going to a movie when the stepdaughter said she had forgotten her sweatshirt.

She apparently returned to her bedroom and found her stepfather sniffing her dirty underwear.

The family called the police, and Elon was alerted, it was reported.

Errol denied the accusation to NYT.

He said he had been cleaning up his stepdaughter’s room.

After the allegations, Elon moved his father to a boat in Los Angeles and then back to South Africa.

They reportedly became more estranged from then, and Errol apparently asked Elon for financial support.

Another incident involving stepdaughter

In 2007, the stepdaughter, who accused Errol of being inappropriate, began getting into drugs.

In 2009, Bezuidenhout got back with Errol again.

This was after they got married, divorced, got married again and fell out again.

One night when the stepdaughter, then 21, was home from college, Errol allegedly kissed her and stuck his tongue into her mouth.

This incident was recounted in an application for an interim protection order, which also claimed without evidence that Errol sexually abused his two daughters and a stepson, who is one of Bezuidenhout's children with another man.

Errol's defence was that the stepdaughter pounced on him and kissed him instead, NYT reported.

The stepdaughter dropped out of college after that and fell more into drugs, it was reported.

Stepdaughter got together with Errol

Errol's stepdaughter, who filed for the interim protection order, later reached out to him for support.

By then, she was about 29.

Errol and the stepdaughter became intimate.

He and his stepdaughter were “lonely, lost people”, Errol said in a 2018 The Sunday Times interview.

He said: “One thing led to another — you can call it God’s plan or nature’s plan.”

They have one child together, according to the stepdaughter, but Errol has said they have two children, NYT reported.

The stepdaughter said the other child was not his, according to a graphic provided by NYT.

Son accused Errol of groping his buttocks

In 2022, their son, aged five at the time, said he had been groped on his buttocks by his father, Errol, family members said.

A social worker called the police.

Prosecutors dropped the case because of insufficient evidence.

The stepdaughter, who was allegedly sexually abused by Errol, is now 37, has several children and gets financial support from Elon.

Errol was born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, and resides there.

Elon asked to intervene

The abuse allegations have caused strife within the Musk family, with some relatives turning to Elon for help as early as 2010, it was also reported.

One relative wrote Elon a five-page letter that included some accusations and implored the tech mogul to intervene.

Elon's relationship with his father

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” without going into details.

In a 2023 authorised biography written by Walter Isaacson, Elon said he does not communicate with Errol.

Top photos via Real Time With Bill Maher YouTube & djvlad YouTube