Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/01/elon-musk-father-interview-not-proud-errol-family
The father of Elon Musk said during an interview that he is not proud of his billionaire son, saying that Elon is unhappy with his career progress.
During the strange interview held on Monday with the Australian radio The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the 76-year-old Errol Musk was asked if he was proud of Elon’s accomplishments.
Errol replied saying “No. You know, we are a family that has been doing a lot of things for a long time, it’s not as if we suddenly started doing something.”
The interview didn’t just provide the elder Musk with a chance to punch down on his child. In addition to discussing Elon, Errol’s interview also touched upon recent news that he fathered two children with his stepdaughter, 35-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout.
Errol, who is 42 years older than Bezuidenhout, became her stepfather when she was four years old. He called his relationship with her “completely normal”.
Those remarks echoed other earlier ones in which he claimed: “The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.”
“I can’t see any reason not to.”
Errol in the interview on Monday conceded that Elon, the founder of Tesla and the chief of SpaceX, has accomplished quite a bit in comparison with his siblings.
“They’ve seen a lot of things, and we’ve done a lot of things together,” said Errol of his family, referring to his clan’s travels to China, the Amazon rainforest, and other places. “But Elon has in fact sort of really surpassed the mark.”
Errol continued discussing his son, saying that the younger Musk feels “behind schedule” in terms of where he wants his various companies to be, and is “not as happy as he’d like to be”.
“He is frustrated with progress and it’s understandable,” said Errol. “I know it sounds crazy, but we tend to think like that as a family. He’s 50 now and I still think of him as a little boy. But he’s 50, I mean that’s an old man.”
Compared with Elon, Errol said during the interview that his other son, Kimbal Musk, is the “pride and joy” of his life. Kimbal is a restaurateur and chef with an estimated net worth of $700m, though Errol claimed that Kimbal was also a billionaire, reported Business Insider.
Errol’s interview Monday came just days after his son decided to file a countersuit against Twitter, which escalated his legal fight against the social media giant over his attempts to walk away from a $44bn purchase agreement.
